


Winding Paths

by CrazyCatFuchsia, StormXros, WhittneytheScorpionSuccubus



Category: Original Work, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety Disorder, Awkward Romance, Betrayal, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Brainwashing, Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Friends, Divorced Todoroki Enji | Endeavor/Todoroki Rei, Double Life, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Heroes to Villains, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Insomnia, LGBTQ Character, Love Confessions, Love Letters, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Mocking, Non-Consensual Blood Drinking, Non-Consensual Kissing, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, POV Third Person, Psychological Trauma, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Psychosis, References to Depression, References to Drugs, Romantic Face Punching, Slow Burn, Timeskips, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:14:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 57,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21773515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyCatFuchsia/pseuds/CrazyCatFuchsia, https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormXros/pseuds/StormXros, https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhittneytheScorpionSuccubus/pseuds/WhittneytheScorpionSuccubus
Summary: This story follows a third year U.A high student named Akira Takashi, she lived with her best friends, Midoriya and Bakugo. With a troubling past, she faced many obstacles in her future.One person's suspicion was particularly piqued by her peculiar actions, he just couldn't prove any of his claims. Every shred of evidence he thought he had fell through and that aggravated him to no end. But another had fallen down the path she walked.
Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Kayama Nemuri | Midnight, Amajiki Tamaki/Toogata Mirio, Aoyama Yuuga/Monoma Neito, Bakugou Katsuki/Original Female Character(s), Jirou Kyouka/Kaminari Denki, Kirishima Eijirou/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 1





	1. Waltz of Butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> A character will be removed from Class 1-A but will not be removed entirely from the story.
> 
> The first few chapters outline relationships and backstory.

It all started in kindergarten, that's where they all met, it was during her first day at school as she was brought into class crying like the rest of the kindergarteners who didn’t want to be separated from their parents. Akira was forced to interact with the other kids, only to encounter two boys, one with fluffy and unruly green hair, who was so excited even with tears rolling down his freckled cheeks, talking non-stop about All Might. And the other one, who was loud and easily excitable with spiky blonde hair that looked like it exploded out of his head.

The green-haired one, once he stopped prattling on about All Might, started to go on about other pro-heroes, piquing Akira’s interest as she slowly walked over to introduce herself. Although she was shier than the two boys before her, she wanted to play in the blonde’s hair.

“Hi, I’m Akira Takashi. Who are you?” She sat down by them and smiled. “I’m Izuku Midoriya! He’s Kacchan! Wanna be friends?” He nearly jumped out of his seat in excitement, pointing over and over to the other student as he said his name, innocently putting her hands in Katsuki’s hair. She nodded as she was the quietest of the group, loving the soft floof atop his head.

“And once we all get our quirks we can be a superhero team!” Katsuki exclaimed, getting another nod from her along with a smile as she moved her hands away from him. “I know right!?” He squealed, having Izuku soon join in and direct the conversation back to the one he was having before. "Who’s your favorite hero, Aki?” They both awaited her answer, overly excited when she agreed with them. "All Might! He's awesome!”

As the young Izuku started to prattle on about anything and everything All Might, Akira began to realize that she may have just made the goofiest friends ever. However their “perfect friendship” only lasted a couple of months, as everyone soon found out that Izuku was quirkless and in fact the only quirkless kid in the class. While most believed that Akira as well didn’t have a quirk, not being able to showcase one like most of her fellow students. Seeing how heartbroken Izuku was over this fact made Akira feel bad that Izuku was not only powerless but that they also couldn’t form the superhero trio that had been dreaming of for the past couple of months now.

Izuku had drawings of their costumes since he was the best artist in the group, and they looked so cool, she made sure to tell him that every chance she got. But as time went on, they slowly drifted apart. Katsuki seemingly dropped Izuku from their friend group, sure that he would weigh them down even if just a day before they were playing at the playground. Without her knowledge of Katsuki's reasoning for not giving her the boot like he did to Izuku, she stuck close to him even when his mouth got him into trouble.

Due to the fact that Izuku was now being outcast, in his newfound isolation he took to his books and spent more time in his head, researching, writing and mumbling to himself. With their new quirks, it gave Katsuki something to brag about every time he got the chance but she couldn't do the same. It just wasn’t in her nature, she knew how hard of a blow that was to Izuku's confidence. In his dream to become like All Might, finding out that he would never achieve that had to be crushing.

Away from Katsuki's arrogant and prideful mindset, she would comfort Izuku in any way she could. Nothing ever helped, her encouragement, her care, and even her friendship did nothing to assure him that he wasn’t at all those things that Katsuki called him. Katsuki would always tell her to get away from that useless, quirkless nerd and because she didn't want to be outcast from the popular group, she would listen to him. It was a massive regret of hers, she couldn't help but feel like she let Izuku down when she was with Katsuki and his friends.

This is how their relationship stayed, Katsuki would torment and tease Izuku. While Akira went behind him to talk to Izuku and help him with his research and designs. This was a constant but no matter how horribly Katsuki would treat him, Izuku never seemed to mind, he even followed him around and helped him, he had that kind of personality. Nothing really ever fazed him when it came to Katsuki, it was always “Kacchan look at this” or “Kacchan did you know that.”

He could never hate him. Even when she had thought that Katsuki had gotten on his last nerve. Izuku would just smile and accept it. Swallowing everything down without any complaint, Izuku accepted that verbal abuse constantly. Somehow as if he never had the courage to tell him no. Which in one way, he didn’t.

Almost as if Katsuki's pride clogged his ears, that or he was too hung up on how wonderfully Izuku still treated him after all this time. Either way, everything Izuku said, went through one ear and out the other. Some words stuck. Others were mere annoyances to him and she had to get him to relax and not lash out immediately at anyone and everyone. Not that it worked but it did just so happen to save Izuku's books for one more day.

Akira’s teachers and parents found it miraculous that she was a late bloomer, her quirk manifesting halfway through elementary school. The doctors said that due to the mutation to her skeletal structure, from her mother’s indestructible bones quirk combining with the fire quirk her father had, it took longer for her quirk to activate itself as there wasn’t any trigger. The spontaneous nature of her quirk activating must have been due to the alteration of her chemicals in her build up, this slowed the development by a few years.

Being congratulated by her friends and family for getting her quirk, she didn’t find this to be an accomplishment, she wound up in the hospital after it developed. A place she would visit often, as her quirk was both destructive to others as well as herself. She kept it to herself, not using her quirk unless absolutely necessary and in day-to-day life, since it wasn’t. She could skate by like before even when she did now possess a quirk, this new information only served to bring Izuku down more but he jumped at the opportunity to study her quirk as well.

Her parents started fighting when she was thirteen, it began with the little things, her mother made the food wrong or her dad stayed out for too long. He was just nitpicking everything she did. Akira would hide under the bed, sometimes without even having had dinner because she was too scared to ask. Most of the time she would sneak out to spend the night over Izuku's apartment or Katsuki’s house, if she was lucky, Katsuki would already be spending the night. This happened almost every night for a year and a half, seemingly becoming a tradition between the three.

She only ever told them about her situation at home, little did she know that Inko was listening outside the door before she called them all downstairs for dinner. Akira ran into the kitchen first to help her bring out the plates, getting stopped by Inko. “You can always come over whenever you want, Akira.” She smiled, kissing her forehead then let her go finish helping out with dinner. She never knew how to thank Inko for her kindness that day, accepting all the little gifts she made. Some mornings she would wake up to a knitted blanket draped over her or with a knitted sweater folded up beside her head, things that she kept hidden in a box under Izuku's bed. She didn’t want to bring it home in case they got ruined, happy that she felt safe somewhere other than her home.

During junior high the three were separated once again, Akira was put in a different class than Katsuki and Izuku but they all seemed to have the same idea of applying for U.A. high school, although Izuku and Akira were seemingly quirkless. Parallel to each other, they were made fun of for being quirkless. “Don’t worry, teach. I’ll make up for their father’s weak pullout game.” Katsuki with his feet kicked up on the desk, he leaned his face up as he soon found interest in the discussion that was being had. His classmates offended by his statement expressed their disgust, not reaching him whatsoever. “I aced the mock test. And once I prove that I’m the best damn hero out there, I’ll surpass All Might and you’ll all be drinking outta mugs with my face on it!” He stood on his desk with superiority over the others, but the announcement of Izuku also applying caused him to still, snapping his head in his direction. Izuku was made fun of by his whole class, cowering away from their gazes, only to have his desk exploded by Katsuki sending him backwards onto the floor. “You think you can even compare to me? You’re worth less than any of these failures, you shouldn’t have been born. Being quirkless is the greatest insult to any parent imaginable. Just give up already, you’ll never amount to anything.” Katsuki crept closer to the teen forcing Izuku to back himself into the wall and defend his choice. “N-No! I don’t mean it as a challenge or a-anything! It’s just been m-my dream and all, so… I thought that maybe, I could d-do it?” His eyes centered on the floor as he was belittled by everyone and the teacher did nothing to stop what was going on.

“Do what?! You couldn’t possibly think that you had any chance of getting in? Give up already, you’re a lost cause. You shouldn’t have any hope of becoming a hero, you’ll only get crushed under my boots.” Katsuki spoke in his natural bravado with a cutthroat attitude towards the quirkless nuisance, that couldn’t grasp that he was nothing more than a hindrance. Settling down as they had to switch classes, as the school day was coming to a close, Katsuki confronted Izuku again as he was putting away his notebook, eager to document the events of this morning’s battle. A new hero named Mt. Lady had emerged and stopped Komui Woods from defeating the rampaging villain, with his notebook in Katsuki's hand, he stared up at the blonde. “I wasn’t done with you yet, nerd. I’m gonna be the only kid from this shitty city school to get into that high school, I don’t see why you even have any hope. You couldn’t possibly get in anyways, why waste their time?” Before Izuku could ask for his notebook back, Katsuki singed it and threw it out the window without a care, a shocked expression on Izuku's face. “So, don’t apply if you know what’s good for you.” After that he tossed his bag over his shoulder and began to leave, stopping at the door to address Izuku once more. “How about this? You take a dive off the roof and pray that you can become a hero in your next life, cause this one surely was wasted!” Izuku stood there not making a sound before Katsuki left, his fists balled up by his side and waited until he was far enough for the two not to see each other again.

Izuku took the back way home to avoid everyone and collect his soiled notebook from the koi that were nibbling on it, bummed that he’d have to rewrite everything in it. Staring down at his red boots with a apparent frown as he recalled the damning memories of finding out that was quirkless due to a stupid extra joint in his pinky toe, entering a tunnel on his way home just at the exit; a slime creature exposed itself to him. Charging at him in hopes to use his body as a disguise, suffocating him by trying to shove itself into his mouth.

Walking home from school, Akira and Miki, her mother comes to her father, Isao who had bags packed for her and a keycard to the nearest hotel set on the table holding up a file. “Honey guess what just came in the mail today?” He addressed Miki, handing the bags to his daughter.

By now, she was used to this. Spending the night somewhere away from home was constant, although she was curious as to why. "Why do I have to go? We haven't had lunch yet." She coquettishly asked as he looked between the two of them. "Because your mom and I have to talk, I don't want to scare you if we get too loud." He gave as a rushed response.

Izuku struggled against his captor but slowly his consciousness was fading and he was losing to it, thinking that this was the end of him as his strength left him. Not knowing what happened next, he was released from the slime creature’s grasp and landed on his back as his savior collected the pieces of the villain.

"Can I get some money for lunch then?" Akira held out her hand, waiting as he got out his wallet and gave her 50,000 yen. She stared at the money with wide eyes, wondering why he gave her so much. "Don't spend it all." He pats her head as she took the bags and swiped the keycard off the table in the moments leading up to their conversation.

All Might gently slapped Izuku's cheek to wake him up, afraid he had lost the teen from his encounter with the villain he was meant to be fighting. When Izuku opened his eyes, he was both surprised and ecstatic by the person who stood in front of him. “Oh thank God you’re alive! I thought I lost you to that horrible villain, but gladly you’re okay! I’m sorry that you got wrapped up in this, it was my fault! You were such a big help in capturing the villain, it was my day off and I didn’t expect any crime today! Thank you very much for your help!” The pro hero planted his fists to his hips with a never fading smile on his face, his bag of food in his hands.

In a tizzy over meeting his idol in person, Izuku sat there speechless the next thought was getting an autograph searching for something to have it written in but upon seeing his notebook laying on the ground, he went to what he thought would be a free page and saw that he had already given him his autograph while he was passed out. Furiously thanking and stating the value of this autograph to him.

Expressing that he had to take the villain to the police, All Might began to take his leave as he stretched he explained that he didn’t have much time to stick around as pro heroes are working on fighting crime before leaping into the air. Izuku latched onto his pants leg because he still had plenty of questions that he wanted to ask him. Agreeing to entertain the teen because what more could do, he couldn’t have him let go because at this height he would die so instead he directed his landing to a building. Making his landing as precise as he could to not hurt Izuku as time was running out for him to stay in his muscle form, wiping the blood off his mouth.

Miki began setting her purse down, "What? I know I paid the bills this month." looking at him. "No. A paternity test." He fumes as he waves the letter by his face, watching the color slowly drain from his wife’s face. "Oh… Why would you order something like that?” Miki inquired as she was trying to hide the fear and regret in her voice.

“You can ask the building manager if they can open the door for you but I really must go.” All Might waved his goodbye to Izuku as he went to leave again, Izuku called out to him with the only question that truly mattered to him at the time coming out of his mouth. “Can someone without a quirk be a hero just like you?!” It was all he wanted to know, to prove to those who looked down on him or gave up on him wrong and that he could achieve his dream even though it was a long shot.

Taking a back alley with the friends he left school with, Katsuki kicked a soda bottle into a pole, the same soda bottle that the slime creature was captured in. Talking about how Izuku had no business thinking that he could even compare to him, that he would dare apply for U.A. high school. Freed from its confines, the creature rose up behind Katsuki and trapped him in its hold.

On the rooftop, with All Might’s timer completely depleted he shrank down to his smaller form as Izuku rambled about the hardships he faced in his past. Finally looking up at the smaller figure, he freaked out, thinking that was just an imposter or this was some kind of prank. Explaining the reasoning behind his diminished form and showing off a sunken wound on his chest, All Might confirmed his identity to the teen. ”I’m not proud of showing this to a fan but I have no other way of getting off this rooftop, jumping in this form would be less than advisable. And I’m sorry you had to see me this way, kid. But to answer your question, I believe that everyone has the capacity to be a great hero, even in a mediocre, yet safe job like a police officer or fireman. I can’t say that becoming a hero is solely based on who has or doesn’t have a quirk because you can save many lives if you choose to do so.” He presented him with other options aside from venturing into the dangerous world of a heroes lifestyle, hoping that being shot down wouldn’t crush what little confidence Izuku possessed left. Taking his leave once again, he found that on his way down the stairs, he had dropped the slime creature from Izuku latching on to his legs.

As Akira headed downstairs, her pace wasn’t quick as she was still in her own head trying to figure out why her dad asked to leave, she only started running faster when the voices grew louder and startled her out of her thoughts. Only for the last thing she would ever hear was “WHEN WERE YOU GONNA TELL ME THAT SHE WASN’T MY DAUGHTER?!” from her father before the house went up in flames before her.

The billowing black smoke smelled noxious, acrid and chemical infused. Traveling across the hallways and room, filling her lungs. The coughing was instant as were the tears that washed over her eyes. Within the house the fire spread with ease, turning the first floor into a maze of flame.

A massive explosion blew out the window sending both her and hot shards of glass against the neighboring building. Stray pieces of shrapnel found their way towards her, a small circular metal disk lodged itself above her coccyx and a larger piece ended up lodged in her shoulder blade; from the damage of explosions and the battle occurring mere feet away from her.

The house burned like a bonfire set with gasoline. The orange flames were garish against the brilliant paint, the black smoke making dark columns into an otherwise perfectly blue sky. The once purple door was already burning, paint bubbled consumed in seconds by the intense heat. Izuku ran out to see what the cause of the smoke was, but stopped as he remembered All Might’s words, deciding to just head home as he really couldn’t achieve what he wanted. On his way back to his apartment, another explosion sounded off, drawing him out of his mind and directed his attention towards it. Rushing over to see the scene that escalated before his eyes, the same slime creature that had him no more than a quarter of an hour ago was now reeking havoc on the shopping district from this morning.

Only this time he wasn’t the one captured by it, regret filling his as he saw who the unlucky victim was. His body acted on its own as he sprinted out to save Katsuki, nothing more than pure adrenaline and intense fear fueled his actions, this was all his fault after all, nothing but his will to try and save him propelled this reaction. Hoping to peel away the gelatinous body of slime from his childhood friend, he scraped his hands down over and over to no avail.

In his struggle, Katsuki turned towards Akira, not able to yell to tell her to get out of the way due to the structural integrity of the buildings being weakened, watching helplessly as a chunk of the building collapsed onto her, crushing her underneath it. From the angle it came down, it took the meat of her thigh off the bone like a tender drumstick.

Her screams were muted by the roaring announcement of a well-known catchphrase from everyone’s beloved Symbol of Peace, “DETROIT SMASH!” Blasting the slime creature away into millions of pieces. Her blood left the artery it belonged to in surges, beat out by a slowing heart.

Her eyesight blurred, but not because tears were welling up. Everything became fuzzy; then she saw nothing at all. Her consciousness was floating through an empty space filled with a thick static. Throughout the inky space, her heartbeats pounded loudly, echoing in her ears, alongside fading pleas for help. Feeling in her body drained away until finally, all was black.

The patter of rain showered the civilians in the shopping district, extinguishing the flames in the process, while Izuku was scolded for trying to save his friend, Katsuki was congratulated for his bravery in the face of evil. Neither of their minds were on the words spoken by the heroes surrounding them, Katsuki's eyes darted around to see if he could potentially point out where Akira was. Relieved as a rescue team collected her body and rushed her off to the nearest hospital, as much as he wanted to visit her, he knew that he had to get home.

As Izuku and Katsuki made their way home, Katsuki deliberately chased Izuku down to confront him about what happened earlier. “Deku!” Upon hearing his nickname, Izuku turned towards him, a slight smile on his face. “Y-Yes, Kacchan?” He softly said as the teen approached him, a scowl on his face. “Don’t ever think I needed your help. I could have handled it all by myself, you stupid weakling. Stay out of my way, if you know what’s good for you.” Katsuki turned on his heel and headed home, grumbling to himself over Izuku's ‘heroic’ actions, when in reality, it was just reckless and dumb. Doing the same as Katsuki, Izuku decided to leave it at that and rather than worry his mother more, he continued on his path home.

Not even able to take one step before being approached by All Might, he looked up at the hero in awe, he still wasn’t used to meeting him, it was unbelievable. He was stoked to be in his presence, yet here he was. “What you did was the stuff of a true hero, kid! I could almost feel the heroism surging through you as your body acted on its own! You asked me before if there was a way to become a hero without a quirk. The answer is yes, you can but I see myself in you, fearless and compassionate.” He praised Izuku getting the teen to tear up, just to know that he could achieve his dream and that he was getting advice from his idol. “M-My name is Midoriya. And t-thank you so much, it means so much to hear that!” He jumped as All Might shrank, still not used to seeing that. “In this wonderful world of quirks, there are those that are spectacular and those that are mundane. My quirk is called One for All, a quirk that is passed down from user to user, if you’re really adamant about becoming a hero. Which I know you are, I can bestow this upon you. This power comes with immense amounts of responsibilities, young Midoriya. Are you ready for this?” Izuku nodded as he bowed, honored that he was chosen to inherit this quirk, eager to prove that he was worthy. “Yes, yes! But… How does this work?”

“Over the course of months that you have before you enter U.A., you will train your body so that you may soon be molded into a proper hero! Meet me at the beach tomorrow morning no later than six A.M., understood?” He instructed and again, Izuku nodded furiously. “Yes, sir!” His enthusiasm overflowed as he jumped at the chance to not only hang out with All Might himself and to become a hero like he had always dreamed. This wasn’t the way he thought it would happen but he was truly grateful for this opportunity he was given. Bidding each other farewell, Izuku and All Might went their separate ways.

When she woke up, she was in a hospital bed, flowers in a vase next to her on a table with her belongings. She gathered herself and took her clothes, phone and wallet with her to the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror, the explosion that took out the whole shopping district; charred her hair leaving it a somber onyx color while other parts fizzled with embers that left streaks a brilliant red color like the flames she produced.

She eyed the bandages encasing her torso and the lower half with a crookedly deranged smile, the memories rising to the surface as she bit her tongue to not scream or cry. She silently got dressed and chuckled to herself, finding it to be useless to dwell on what happened. Nothing she could do would help change that, she just had to move forward. She was slow whilst limping and navigating the unfamiliar halls, finding her way into the waiting room, only to be stopped by the hospital staff; blinding white streaks flashed past her eyes as she lost her balance, accidentally knocking herself out again from the sheer amount of pain she put herself in.

After all of that died down, Izuku took to the schedule All Might set out for him, cleaning the beach of the litter and debris, following the training regimine that was set out to the letter, he wasn’t going to slack on this now, not when he was this close. Akira was given a cane to help her walk around, not wanting to be stuck using a cane for the rest of her life, she used that to motivate herself to get better. While Izuku trained, she got better, going through countless hours and months of physical therapy after school just as Izuku applied himself to his work, not slowing down at all. They knew how long it would take but it never discouraged them, because they had every ounce of their bodies telling them to push themselves, to go even further beyond.

When it became too much for her, she would hide away in this abandoned building she called home. Neither Katsuki nor Izuku knew that she even lived in a place like this. Honestly, both of them would flip their respective shits. Katsuki in his own violent, yet somehow caring way and Izuku in his rambling compassion. It wasn’t like it was hard to live there, she could get any food she wanted, she’d hop from hotel to motel, stealing whatever she needed to survive and leaving just before anyone found out. Except for tonight, she was sloppy from lack of sleep.

The night was cold and thin, sharp against the skin of the teen who whipped through it, feet pounding frantically on the concrete as she fled from the police close behind her. She could hear the sounds of footsteps mingling in with her own, she'd dropped her backpack back at the hotel. But she kept running. Even when her legs were numb and they felt like they were going to break, she had to keep it up until she lost them.

She had to get farther from them to concoct a plan that was one, believable and two, that would disallude the police that she could've been behind the crimes that were committed tonight or even link her to some others that she'd committed previously. She waited for the hairs on the back of her neck to stop standing on end, with her back to a pile of crates. “Ah~! Your hair is pretty!” An energetically soft voice spoke in her ear, making her flinch. “What are you running away from?” She continued, holding onto her wrists gently as she licked the new gash, one that she gave her on Akira’s cheek.

A quiet euphoric sound escaped her lips at the taste, she slid her blade across her tongue soon after, keeping her eyes locked on Akira’s. “You taste so sweet! Such a delicious, wonderful friend I have.” She lightly traced her tongue over her bloodied lips, smiling widely.

“W-? Who are you?” Akira sneered at the petite, fair-skinned girl with blush covering her rounded cheeks. Her golden eyes bore into her with pale, dirty ash-blonde hair was styled in two messy buns, threatening to poke her eye out. “I’m Himiko Toga!” She happily exclaimed, “I want to know more about you.” Her tone dropped the energy, replaced with a more clement, addicting whisper.

“You didn’t answer my question, Aki.” She addressed her like they were friends, making Akira immediately feel uneasy but before she got to respond; a prick of pain sprouted in her thigh. “Don’t call me that...” She backed up into another figure, letting out a shaky gasp. Keeping her gaze on Toga, almost like she was trying to make sure she was still there.

“Please stand still if I’m gonna get your measurements. **I hate when they move!** ” His voice switched along with his demeanor, finding it relaxing by similarity alone. “Sorry, continue.” Akira covered her mouth at the nearly childish compliance she gave. “You don’t have to be scared. This is Twice.” Toga gestured to him, finally having her look up at him. “Nice to meet you. **No it’s not.** ” She chuckled at his contradictions.

Toga tilted her head, a giggle erupted from her when she filled her tank completely. “Jin, are you done?” He gave her a nod, putting away his measuring tape. “You did wonderfully. **You were completely awful.** ” Akira moved from between them, seeing that Toga was no more than a few years older than her and Twice or Jin as she called him, was a grown man.

“Set yourself on fire. I wanna hear how pretty your screams are. How lovely your bruised face will be afterwards.” Toga had a point, it was just enough to get herself off the hook. She did the one thing she hated, she ignited half of her face to a temperature high enough to melt her skin. Although she couldn't feel it, she started screaming and crying as she held her now wounded face, rolling on the ground with blood and tears mixing together in a small puddle near her.

Most of the officers chased after the 'suspects' that took off in the opposite direction, watching as Toga followed along, while a few other officers asked her what had happened but her face was too badly burned for her to form sentences, more so because she chose to stay silent. They called an ambulance and rushed her to the nearest hospital, earning her an alibi and free meals for as many nights as it took for her to get better.

Although she had some other close encounters with the police, they never suspected her of anything. They’d take one good look at this now high school student and brush it off. Chalking it up to someone more menacing and not some baby-faced girl.

She didn’t have much, through sleepless nights on the cold concrete and various different jobs to make any type of money to buy clothes and on occasion, if she got lucky, she could find someone’s thrown out furniture.

On one of her hunts, she bumped into someone accidentally, looking up at the individual but as she began her apology, he stopped her. "I don't care, kid. Why're you out so late…?" His voice had a smokiness to it, leaving her a bit smitten by the tone. "I was hungry. I was heading home to cook, wanna join me? I'm making steak and fries." She naively invited a complete stranger to her home, earning a leisurely smile from the individual.

"How do you know I wouldn't kill you? After all, you can never trust a random person who you just met." He hunched over her smaller frame, amused by her lack of caution and the nervous giggle gave him. "You would've done that by now if you had that in mind. I'm Akira Takashi, you are?" She extended her hand to him, curious that he held out his left hand, she quickly responded by using her left hand to shake his.

"Dabi. You're the little girl who lost her parents in that accident, right?" That anecdote made her eye her bag, nodding slightly. He propped his arm up on the wall beside her, understanding her immediately from how she dressed and the fact that she was let out by herself at nearly midnight. "Yeah. My last name gave that away, huh?" He placed a callous finger under her chin, lifting her face towards his. The shimmering turquoise of her eyes were clouded by tears, to have someone bring up her loss was not what she hoped for tonight. "That and you're homeless... Where do you live?" She grabbed his hand, leading him to the abandoned building and gestures to it. "Here." She softly announced.

"Not bad. Better than being out on the streets." He followed her as she went inside, heading straight to the 'kitchen', standing in front of an old wood stove. As she got out the pans, she saw blue flames light the wood afire. "Nice to know I'm not the only person that has a quirk like that." She chuckles, watching the flames dance as she waved her hand, her control over the element had increased.

He hummed something she didn’t recognize, sitting down under the kotatsu with his head resting comfortably on his hand. “It seems that most people nowadays have some type of fire quirk…” He yawns and watches her cook, noticing that she wasn't speaking much anymore, clearing his throat to get her attention. “Yeah, me and one of my friends have a very similar quirk. He makes explosions, which I thought he used to style his hair at first until I met his mom, I guess it’s just a family thing.” She smiles with a hint of blush on her cheeks.

“How are you both boring and interesting…?” He mumbled to himself but because there was no noise to obscure his words, she overheard him and turned to look at him. “I dunno. You chose to walk with me.” She pointed out, joining him at the kotatsu and sat across from him. “Maybe you just like boringly, interesting people? I wouldn’t say you were a riot yourself, y’know.”

“I’m not here for your amusement, kid. Next, you offered me dinner and I hadn’t eaten yet. I don’t see you as a threat, nor do you look like you carry much intelligence or spite to poison someone. You have a very trusting face, not many can say the same about me.” He pokes the patches of gnarled, wrinkled, purple skin that covered much of his lower face and neck, all the way down past his collarbone, hoping to get a disgusted expression from her but there was none.

She did however stop to look over the stranger’s body, the same patches of bruised skin were under his eyes and on his arms. She reflexively touched her spine when she saw the surgical staples attaching his skin together, a sad sigh escaping her. What made her frown was that they didn’t look professionally done, like he inflicted the damage himself and tried his hand at fixing himself.

“I think you look cool. I’m used to seeing shit like that, quirks aren’t perfect. Drawbacks can be a pain.” She groans and rolls her eyes, running her hands through wavy black and red hair as little embers floated away. “Hm… I like you. Not many people are as bold as you are.” He admired that about her, something that he couldn’t say about most people that he met. Everyone gathers who a person is by a first glance, the looks that he had gotten over the years for his appearance alone brought on a frown.

She couldn’t help but laugh, catching his attention again as she went back to cooking their dinner with a smile. “Rare? Medium? Well done? How do you take it?” She lolled her head against her shoulder, to see his reaction watching him shrug. “Burn it for all I care, I’ll eat it. I don't expect you to be a great cook." She scoffs and cooks their steaks well done, chopping and frying the potatoes up. "Why? Cause you assume that since I'm young, I must not have any expertise as a chef?" She set their plates down, sliding over a fork and knife. With how she sounded, it seemed like he had offended her but she couldn’t care less. "You'll steal more than you'll cook, is all." He grumbled, eating without so much as a change in expression, watching her in short glances as she ate.

He didn’t admit it but she piqued his interest, not only because he knew what she was going through but because her attitude suggests that this wasn’t hard for her. Like she was built to rough it out, steal, lie and cheat. That she was accustomed to this type of life, a skill that not most had. They sat together quietly, occasionally talking about whatever was on their mind about each other. She washes the dishes and sighs, going to set up her sleeping bag. Not having one for him made her feel bad, remembering that she had a spare blanket for the cold winter nights. She held it out for him along with a pillow. "Are you going back home?"

He takes the spare blanket, positioning himself in the corner with it draped over himself, tucking the pillow behind his head. “My place is too far of a walk from here, so I’ll just stay for the night…” He nonchalantly mentions, almost glaring at her as she rests her head on his thigh to sleep, not having a pillow herself. “Night Dabi.” She smirks and unbeknownst to her, she had just befriended the very person who would take something dear to her away.

It had been ten months since the sludge monster incident happened, everyone had moved on. Today was the big day, if she messed this up in any way, she would wind up back in that same cold building she grew up in. She stood in front of U.A High School, staring up at the establishment as her heart pounded in her ears.

Around the same amount of time since she last saw her friends, observing the other people in the school courtyard with a mild curiosity. She chuckled at Izuku, almost tripping on his way in but was helped by a short brown haired girl, she made him float for a few seconds to not land face first on the ground. Akira chose not to bother him, preparing herself for the entrance exam. They all had time to catch up later, even if they didn’t get in the same class.

She watched from afar, taking in his frantic movements, his awkward stammering, and freckled face. With Present Mic explaining everything to the students, mentioning that there were several different robots that they would face. She thought it was a piece of cake, seated by Izuku and Katsuki but found that she was chosen to be in the same section as Izuku and a large group of others as they made their way to the gate, she stared at her friend. While his focus was locked on the girl that saved him from tripping, aiming to thank her, but was stopped by someone putting their hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you should leave her alone, she is preparing herself and that is not to be disturbed.” Understanding what Iida meant and nodded, he left her alone but was disheartened by everyone assuming he wasn’t much competition. The feeling of someone else tapping his shoulder, made him jump but he looked over to her. Akira raised her eyebrow at his sweatsuit with a smile. “How the hell did you get here? Thought you couldn’t get in without a quirk.” She joked as he began to stutter, seeing that she only had on bandages that left nothing to the imagination. Having known her since childhood, seeing her like this was not something he had ever expected to happen. Unable to respond to her question due to the exam starting unexpectedly, they went off in separate directions.

She laughed at all those who cowered away from the robots, blasting through as many of them as she could, making a secret challenge between her and Katsuki to see who'd win. As Izuku struggled to find any robots to destroy, he found himself in a panic, the emotion being heightened as he stared wide eyed at the largest robot, while everyone else ran from it, knowing it gave them no points. Izuku felt the same rush of adrenaline that sent him running to save Katsuki course through him when he saw that the brown haired girl was trapped underneath the rubble, helpless to do anything. Akira froze in place when she saw the girl trapped like she was, the pang in her chest brought on a panic similar to Izuku's but her jaw dropped when Izuku launched himself at it, destroying the robot with one punch even when before he could barely take a punch. She sat in disbelief at this, blinking while stunned by his new quirk, gritting her teeth at her own weakness but said nothing to him about this discovery, only stopping when time was over, at the end of the exam she stood within the crowd as they pondered over his quirk, glancing back to see Recovery Girl heal him. She balled up her damaged fist and went over to Recovery Girl with her arm out to her, not saying anything to her as she was healed but gave a nod of thanks. Keeping to herself as she headed for the exit, she knew why he was so awkward, so anxious, she knew and understood but this, this new quirk of his, one that he never told her about, never told Katsuki about, it drove her to a place her mind shouldn’t have gone.

Iida stood in the crowd, hearing from the little banter that they had no idea that Izuku sacrificed himself to save Ochaco, his heroism moved Iida. Even with this being an exam and Izuku knowing that he hadn’t scored any points, he took it upon himself to save someone in need. That was what Iida admired, sure he would have done the same if it weren’t an exam. She decided to head back with Izuku to his apartment, keeping herself at a distance to go over the events of today.

After a slow week of getting herself prepared for whatever news was to come, Inko and Izuku invited her over for dinner, almost relieved to be given a home cooked meal and not have to scrounge for one night. Almost as stressed out as Izuku was over the results of the entrance exam, confused by his smiling at the fish he was holding. Her addressing this fact as a way to snap him out of that trance, getting him to eat his food as Akira did the same. Relaxing next to Izuku after dinner was done, she slumped over on the couch as she passed out from exhaustion.

Inko drapes a blanket over her and tries to ease the worries of her son. “I’m sure the results will come in today or tomorrow. You waited this long, I’m sure it won’t be too hard to wait a bit more.” She kissed his forehead softly as she went to the door to check on the mailbox, hoping that maybe the news had arrived already so he wouldn’t have the thoughts of failure on his mind. Running back without time to put on her house shoes, holding up two letters, one addressed to Izuku and the other for Akira. Izuku gently shook her awake, getting a soft mumble from her. “What?” She stared down at Inko as she held out the letter to her, nodding towards Izuku as he headed to his room, Inko anxiously pacing outside his door. Akira took her letter into the hall by the front door, opening it and smiled tiredly as she got accepted, Izuku was distraught at the thought of failure but he had gotten in due to rescue points alone. Cheering to himself as he ran out of his room to celebrate with his mother, wondering where Akira went so he could tell her the good news. Akira peeked out from the hall and smiled, giving him a little nod as she went back to the couch to finish her nap.

The next night, Izuku met up with someone on the beach, the unusual time made Akira skeptical, following him without his knowledge. Seeing who he was talking to made her worried but as their conversation continued, she gawked at the smaller figure becoming All Might. Watching them run off the beach when two civilians noticed All Might, Akira may not have heard the conversation they had but something was definitely going on. She now just had to prove it, more like confront Izuku about it.

It had been three weeks since Akira saw Izuku and All Might on the beach together, still keeping her mouth shut. She got up before Inko and Izuku, way before her alarm even, knowing that she didn’t have to worry about Izuku being late because of it. She got dressed in her school uniform, thankfully, the school faculty respected her request of a male issued one. She silently made her way to school, the gentle breeze of that April morning gave her a sense of relief, not only was it her birthday month she loved the weather. Her eyes focused on the cotton clouds and blue sky, until she lost her balance after being bumped into by a small group of students.

His boisterous laughter died down once he realized who he had bumped into. The hardened gaze he held smoothed out to a loving expression. He risked getting his uniform dirty as he knelt down, his arm outstretched to her. An apology slipping past his thin lips, curling into a kind smile.  
His eyebrow twitched up at the new hair and scars, it made him feel horrible that he was the cause of it all. He brushed the stray strands covering her brilliant blue eyes with his finger.

He took in her clothes, seeing she chose not to wear the female issued uniform but instead one like his. It was a good look for her, he knew that this made her comfortable. "It's chill. You didn't hurt me." She laid her hand on his, feeling weightless as he brought her up with little effort. He lifted her hand to his lips, placing a chaste peck to her bruised knuckles. "Sup, Aki. I see you’ve gotten more plush.” He whispered, knowing he had so much more to say to her and smirked at her prominent blush; his hand snaked around her waist. With their chests pressed together, their eyes met once again. "Mornin' Katsu." She rested her hand on his shoulder, the other making its way up to his burning cheek.

He leaned in as she closed her eyes, giving him no resistance but just before they completed the kiss, he flicked her nose, tossing his bag carelessly over his shoulder and waved as he walked back towards his friends. He winked at her, pride bubbling in his chest at the fact that he could garner that reaction out of her, after all, they’d been through. She covered her nose and smiled, glancing back at him, just catching him staring at her before turning back to the street. Wondering why Izuku wasn’t here yet.

She made her way past Katsuki and joined the rest of her fellow students that had gathered in the classroom of Sekijiro Kan, or as they would be calling him from now on, another famous hero that goes by Vlad King, he himself never cared for the spotlight and she respected that. She wound up back to chest with a male student, tilting her head back to look up at the taller individual who had their hands on her waist. "Hi! My name is Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu. I didn't mean to bump into you, I literally didn't see you." He gave her a wide smile, not in a demeaning sense but to show he honestly hadn't meant to bump into her.

She nods quickly, scooting forward when he let her go and sees the rage sparking up in Katsuki's eyes. "Hey, extra! Look where you're going next time." He growled, making her bite her lip. "I'm fine, at least he didn't knock me over." She snapped back, rolling her eyes. The next thing she felt was Katsuki's hand on her arm, pulling her away from him with a snarl."I said sorry, don't make a scene. I just wanted him to pay attention to where he was going." He kept his voice low in her ear, Vlad ordering her to get to her desk before she got to respond.

As Inko was doting on him to make sure he had everything he needed for his first day of school, since he overslept Akira was already off to school. Leaving him to go to school by himself, he didn’t know why she didn’t think to wake him up but he’d just have to ask her that later. He ran to class, seeing that the halls were empty as everyone was already inside. He hoped that he wouldn’t be in the same class as Katsuki and the other teen who pointed him out during the entrance exam, but as soon as he slid the door open. He saw the two arguing, Katsuki commenting on how he would be happy to crush an elite like Iida, getting a concerned expression from him.

Iida and Katsuki noticed that the door was open, having Iida immediately rush over to Izuku and express that he must have known that there was more than meets the eye about the exam and expressed that Izuku was better than him. Even when Izuku had no idea what he was talking about, later than he was, Ochaco announced herself from behind him, making note of his plain appearance. As Izuku was at a loss for words, a person in a sleeping bag laid on the floor behind them all, the first to see him was Izuku, unsure of what was going on.

Not giving them much time to even get seated, Aizawa told them to get dressed in their gym uniforms and meet him outside. Overall, doing mediocre in the tests since he would become incapacitated if he used his quirk, Izuku knew the threat of expulsion meant that he had to step it up and during the ball throw was the only time he would think of to excel. Harnessing the power in his arm, he aimed to use it completely until he tossed the ball, sure he was using it but it landed a few feet away from him.

“I erased your quirk.” Aizawa saw zero potential in the student before him, knowing from the entrance exam that his quirk left him defenseless, giving him a lecture on how he was useless as a hero if someone had to swoop in to save him after he used his quirk once. Granting him his quirk again, still unamused by the student and sure he would have to expel him, Aizawa was pleasantly surprised by Izuku's use of his quirk and how he took the lecturing to heart. Centering the power of One for All on his first finger, he launched the ball close to how far Katsuki had, while still being able to move, even with the pain. Outraged by the lies that he was served by his childhood friend, Katsuki raced over to give him a piece of his mind, being restrained by the cloth Aizawa had around his neck.

When Katsuki cooled down, Aizawa let him go, giving Izuku the chance to run away. Completing the rest of the tests with some difficulty as he only could focus on the pain, Izuku ranked last compared to his classmates. Only to learn that the threat was only made to have the students express the upper limits of their quirks and that they all were fine to return to class.

"Today we'll be seeing how you use your quirks in a physical evaluation test. Just try your best and you'll do great." Hearing his words, nearly made Akira gag. This togetherness and kindness was enough to put her to sleep. Nothing that was happening was something she cared for. She was seated in front of Monoma Neito, which was in the front of the class, putting her in perfect line for Monoma's glare. She barely wanted to concentrate on what was going on, knowing that he was watching her but she couldn't understand why. From seeing what happened in the courtyard, Monoma had gathered that maybe befriending Akira would gain him leverage over Katsuki. A bargaining chip, per se. All he had to do was play his cards right and know whose side she was on.

The only thing that got her to acknowledge what was going on was that everyone had gotten up, giving her the chance to hopefully get outside before anyone but she wasn't fast enough to prevent Momona's tactful interception. His mockery and distasteful attitude towards Class 1-A made her blood boil, seconds before Akira lunged at him, Kendo chopped him on his skull. Kendo dragged Monoma along and apologized to Akira until they were in the midst of their classmates, shooting her a kind smile.

During the time it took for them to begin the test, Katsuki had sent Akira a text with his score on the Quirk Apprehension Test. She ignored him when it was finally her turn, practically disintegrating the ball from the force and speed it went, shooting it just below the score Katsuki had set by about ten meters and quickly cleared the race as well. The skin of her hand was peeling off in large chunks, she clenched her fist and hid it from everyone. "Maybe you should head to see Recovery Girl. You need to fix that hand, it looks like it hurts." Juzo quietly spoke, trying not to alert anyone as he took her hand in his own to examine it.

He could almost sense her aversion to his care and without another word let her go. She didn't stay long enough to see how the rest of her class had fared on the test. She found herself in the girl's locker room and hid in the back. It was a waiting game now, watching her hand in anticipation and with mild hopes that it would heal before her classmates came in.

The first person to find her was Kendo, followed by Setsuna and Pony. "Akira, is there something going on? Should we get you to Recovery Girl?" Kendo gently took her hand, seeing the half-healed wounds all over. "Who did that to you? Why are you hiding out here?" Setsuna added on before she got a chance to explain, Pony joined in. "Oh my goodness! Are you okay? I'll go ask Mr. Vlad for help!" She ran off to find him or the closest teacher in the halls.

"Guys, this is what happens when I overuse my quirk. Can someone stop her?" She snatched her hand away from Kendo and shoved it in her pocket, pushing past them to find somewhere else to hide. "Why don't you just go to Recovery girl?" Kendo followed with Setsuna close behind, they watched her cover Pony's mouth and pick her up seconds into her conversation with Vlad.

"I'm fine and I don't want your fucking help!" She pushed Pony towards Kendo and Setsuna, looking up at Vlad while gritting her teeth. "Already causing trouble on your first day, young Akira." All Might spoke from behind and rested his hand on her shoulder, her eyes widening at the wave of pain. "What's gotten you so riled up?" He smiled, having everyone but her stunned by his presence alone. "Stop touching me." She scoffed and moved forwards to get his hand off.

"I'm fine. Happy?" She rolled her eyes and went to the nurse's office like everyone kept telling her to do, stopping by Izuku's bed after she got in. "O-Oh! Hi Akira… I didn't know you got hurt too." He stuttered even though it was just us, she pulled up a chair by his bed. "You know how my quirk is, I accidentally overdid it." She chuckled nervously, hating it when people helped her but it never felt like that when they were together. She didn't even notice that she'd been healed.

They went back to class and she helped him with his tie, even though she didn't know how to tie it either. After a few more hours of class, everyone went home for the day. She walked home with Izuku, knowing she could easily smile and laugh with him, pinching his cheek whenever he'd make a weird joke or said something she didn't like. All the thoughts that ran through her mind and her worries faded away quickly once they got locked into a common interest of theirs.  
She opened the door for him, going in behind him and waved at his mother, Inko. "Are you two hungry? I just made dinner." Her voice was soft and warm, leaving them both too weak to deny. They joined her at the table rather than skipping out to go to his room or just enjoying it later on.

"It's been a good while since you've come over Akira, how are things at school you two?" Inko set out their plates and watched them give each other a glance. "W-We had a great day! I got to meet All Might and Kacchan was so cool today! I made some new friends with this c-cute girl named Ochaco and Iida." Once he started, he couldn't stop himself from his rambling until his thought was completed. Leaving her and Inko to eat in peace while he talked, somehow eating in between.

"That sounds very exciting, dear. Be careful so you don't choke." She politely warned, smiling as he took her words to heart and ate slower. "Was your day as exciting as his?" She pulled her attention towards Akira, who had finished her food during Izuku's speech. "Same as his mostly. Met new people, got a bit roughed up but I'm fine." She kept it short and simple, not really in the mood to talk.

"What's got you so down, sweetheart? I've never seen you this upset before." It was like she had some sixth sense, because nothing alluded her to the fact that she was except pure intuition. "Just woke up wrong, I guess…" She took her plate into the kitchen and set it down in the sink. "Aw, do you want to sleep here? Izuku wouldn't mind sharing his bed like he used to when you were little. Right, Izuku?" She offered up his bed without thinking about how awkward that might be for the both of us.

"That's okay, I can sleep on the floor. It's his bed after all." Akira waved it off and smiled, seeing that Izuku was basically a babbling mess at the thought. "I'll get some blankets, so you two can have a sleepover like old times." She rushed off in a waddle, more enthusiastic than they were. They both sat in silence, a blush covering their faces and they didn't say anything until they got to his room.

Izuku took to his chair, watching her close the door. "You could take my bed, I don't mind sleeping on the floor." He quietly spoke, knowing she wouldn't listen to him but he wanted the choice out there. "Nope, I like the floor better than the bed." She got comfortable on her makeshift bed, relaxing with a blissful smile.

"You know Katsu's been acting weird lately." She admitted and sighed, getting cozy under the covers. "He likes you. Didn't you know?" His smile turned to a frown as he saw the shock on her face, she stared at him in total disbelief. "W-What?" She stammers, looking at the floor. "You seriously didn't know? I thought he told you! He told me when we were younger." He realized he wasn't making it any better so he got quiet, putting his hand on her arm in hopes to soothe her.

"But why…?" She whispered, becoming a cocoon in her blankets. “Well for one, you’re both very feisty and love to win. You’ve both known each other since childhood and usually, most romances start like that. He confided in us a lot more than anyone else. Your quirk cancels his out and he thinks that’s cool. I do too! You don’t talk down to him like most people would and you understand him almost perfectly.” He rattled off while counting his fingers as he made his point.

She was halfway listening to him, her eyes focused on the ceiling. “You aren’t helping Izuku… Just go to bed, we have shit to do tomorrow.” She rolled over to hide her face, getting a soft pat on the head from him. “You sure you don’t wanna lay down with me?” He stiffly laid on his back, patting the spot next to him. “Maybe when you’re better. Sleep dude.” She chuckled, listening to him snoring already and followed suit hours later.


	2. Mixed Patterns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With newly gained information, how will she deal with the problems or maybe benefits it will cause?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter will have minor body horror/gore and abuse in it. Along with sexual content.

When she woke up, Izuku was gone but there was a note hanging from his chair, gently swaying as the AC blew chilled air around the apartment. The words he spoke the night before still rang loudly in her ears, not sinking in like she thought they would've. It didn't make sense to her. Really none of this made any sense. She grabbed the note as she went to the bathroom, reading it while brushing her teeth with the toothbrush Inko had purchased late last night. _'Good morning! There's a change of clothes for you on the nightstand and breakfast set out on the table downstairs. I hope you have a wonderful day, Akira.'_

She smiled and crumpled the note up, tossing it in the trash. She squinted at Izuku's choice in toothbrush, thinking his obsession with All Might had to have boundaries and soon seeing she was very wrong at a quick, disdainful glance around the bathroom. "Wow, he's got a lot of misplaced adoration." She mumbled to herself, putting her toothbrush down and left. Making her way downstairs, she finally saw the poof of green hair she expected to wake up to.

"Izu! Why didn't you get me up sooner?" She exclaimed, stepping into the dining room and sat by him. "You didn't sleep much, so I let you wake up on your own. It's an off day anyways." He yawned and pet his shoulder, smiling as she rested her head against him. "Yeah, I know. Were you being serious about the thing with Kacchan?" As much as she didn't care for the nickname, she was too tired to catch herself before she said it. "I am. You should just talk to him. He's coming over later." He ran his fingers through her hair, pleased to see her relaxing for once.

"Sounds like a plan. But what are your plans for today? Gonna try and talk to Uraraka? Maybe buy me lunch?" She teased softly, earning an extended wheeze from him followed by coughing as he choked on his breakfast. He sunk down in his chair with his hands covering his face, muttered out noises peaking higher as he thought more on it. Wondering if there was something he missed, something only Akira saw. Should he ask her about it? Knowing how much she liked messing with him, was she even telling the truth or was this all to just get him flustered? Because if it was, she did a great job at it.

He was blushing heavily and staring down at his empty plate. Soon giving up on his ramblings entirely, rubbing the back of his neck with a sigh. "I-I really didn't have anything to do today. I was just gonna let you two decide, like we always did." He quickly changed the topic back to how they were going to spend their day. She took his dishes into the kitchen and put it in the sink. "Nah, it's your turn today. Whatever you want."

"Why do you do that so much?" He stood up and frowned at her, somewhat uncomfortable by her teasing him. "Sorry. It's a force of habit. One that I should break." She genuinely apologized, forgetting that he never was a fan of the way Katsuki treated him, really no one would be. "I just saw how you acted towards her and yesterday at dinner you even said she was cute. So… I thought it would be okay."

"It's not but I accept your apology. We just met, I'm not asking her out or anything like that." He turned to leave, getting a soft hug from her. "Never said you had to. I'm saying talk to her, just like you want me to talk to Kacchan." She soon let him go and laughs as he returns the hug. "Promise you won't say anything around her?" He looked up at her, hearing her make a 'eh' noise. "Aki, c'mon! Please!" He begged and squeezed her. "Fine! Let me breathe!" She pulled away and smiles at him.

"I'll think about where to go. My mom made us breakfast, you should eat before it gets too cold." He meticulously organized the out of place strands of hair on her head, mumbling to himself as he did so. "I will." She clenched her pant leg and smacks his hand away. "I-I'm sorry! Did I do something wrong?" He backs up to stare at her, seeing that she had her eyes glued to the floor. "No…" That was all she said before going back upstairs to retrieve the clothes Inko bought her. He followed her and took her hand carefully. "What's wrong? You can't just say no and expect me to drop it, you know I'm not gonna do that Akira." He quietly inquired but let her hand go in case she really didn't want to talk.

She holds her clothes close to her chest, not realizing she was blushing. At the gentle placement of Izuku's hand, her mind took her back to yesterday afternoon in the courtyard. The burning sensation in her cheeks grew, alongside the fire in her core. It branched out to her limbs, warming her down to the lengths of her fingertips. Without even understanding what she had done yet, Izuku frantically yelled from the bathroom. “Akira! My mom handmade this!”, taking off the sweater and showed her the burnt area. “Ah, um… Shit.” She looked around to see if Inko’s door opened at all.

“Maybe she doesn’t have to know?” She questioned herself while trying to come up with a way to fix it. “I have to tell her. She washes my laundry and yours. She’ll find out no matter what! Plus I hate hiding things from her, she’s already got a lot on her plate.” He groans and smiles, taking no time to go get another shirt and poked the nape of her neck. “Now you have to talk to me. What’s going on? You’ve never burned me before, even if you’re mad. And you’re being very distant, facially at least. I understand that something is wrong but if I’m honest with you, you definitely have to be honest with me. Feelings and all.” He tried to be as quiet as he could to not freak her out.

“Look, I wasn’t thinking. Uh, yesterday afternoon Katsuki almost kissed me, but instead he flicked my nose and I don’t know if that meant something to me but it meant something to him…” She sighed lightly, rolling her eyes at his smile. “I would think that that definitely meant something to him especially since Kacchan never seems to be in a good mood, but when he looks at you, or you’re close by he just... “ Izuku's words trailed off and he stood there with his head lowered like he was trying to figure it all out without interruption, muttering to himself like he usually does until he finally spoke back up. “Akira look, I don’t know for sure if Kacchan truly likes you but that does seem to be the case and you need to at least tell him that you’re open to try, although you may not feel the same things that he feels. He probably wants to do more with you, BE more with you and I’ve seen firsthand that he is not willing to quit just because it looks tough. He’s got this weird balance between his destructive personality and his somber, stoic demeanor that makes me wanna push harder and I know that you are a catalyst for him, just like All Might is for me. So even if you can’t feel love like that, promise me that you'll help him through it all cause it would probably crush him if he lost you or worse, he never got to see you again cause he got kidnapped or something. I know I would feel terrible if I wasn't fast enough or strong enough to save him. The first time he got trapped All Might saved him but if there ever is a next time, I hope you and I can be there… don’t you agree?”

All she could do was nod, thinking over the insight he just gave her made her head spin. She of course wanted nothing more than to ease Katsuki's worries and doubts. But what could she really do if he found out the truth about her, something that she hadn’t disclosed to Izuku. One of her closest friends, who she trusted to tell her darkest secrets, yet one secret she couldn’t tell ate away at her since the day they met. Something that she had no idea Izuku figured out and has known since middle school. He’d never tell without her permission, understanding that it wasn’t his place to tell and that if she couldn’t come to terms with it by now, the secret would stay between just them.

“Woo, boy I’m hungry!” She coughed awkwardly into her hand, saluting him as she walked backwards downstairs. “Gonna heat up that food and do some eatings and shit.” She raced down to the kitchen and scarfed down her food, a vacant expression on her face. Methodically washing the dishes, drying them and putting them away, aiming to finish up and shower before Katsuki arrived. She gathered herself, breathing slowly and thoroughly as she went back upstairs. Thinking that she would come face to face with Izuku in his room but he was nowhere to be seen, assuming he had went to tell his mother the news about his newly scorched sweater.

She shrugged it off, hoping that once the news was given she wouldn't upset Inko; her crying felt like a javelin to the heart. She pushed the bathroom open and began getting undressed, dropping her bandages on the floor. With gritted teeth she jumped in the shower, staring down at the messy green hair before her.

“Izuku…” She backed up against the wall. “I-I heard you come in and I had no idea you planned to shower. Do you want me to get out? You can always go first, I really don’t mind, you are the guest after all I should’ve asked you if you wanted to instead of thinking that I could. What do you want me to do, Akira?” He shielded his eyes as he turned to her, peeking through his hands and met her eyes. “I don’t mind taking a shower with you. I was gonna need your help getting dressed anyways. Your mom gave me a bra.” She pats his head and chuckles, starting to shower, just listening to him stutter his way through his own shower.

They both kept their eyes off of each other’s bodies, practically locking their eyes on the ceiling the entire time. Awkwardly shimming around to not touch each other either, occasionally they bumped into one another and Izuku yelped, apologizing heavily. Akira laughed, not seeing the problem and shushed him calmly, kissing his forehead then got out of the shower. He blushed and joined her, he stayed by the shower to dry off while she stood by the door to do the same. “How do you not know how to put on a bra? Don’t all girls know how to do that? I know that sounds so mean, I just thought that you’d know how to put one on. Why ask me when you could ask my mom or Kacchan? I don’t think I’m that qualified to do something like that… Well he really isn’t either. M-Maybe his mother would be able to help you better than I could.” He shuddered out a breath, startled by her hand on his bare shoulder.

“Look at me, Izuku. You’ll see why I don’t wear one. Why I wrap myself in bandages.” He finally looked at her, paling instantaneously as a queasy feeling washes over him, the chunk of her right shoulder that was stitched together, resembling Frankenstein's monster. He didn’t say anything, completely stunned by what he was witnessing, while fixated on her scar, his gaze lowered towards the floor but was stopped by what had become of her left leg. The skin grafted onto her thigh felt synthetic; which it was.

He picked up the bra and silently helped her, removing the straps as he knew it would make her more comfortable. Just as he thought it couldn’t get any worse, he circled around her, her spine could be compared to a patchwork doll. It was mangled, the contorting scission bound by staples, his hand rose but his feathery touch did nothing to her. He let his mind wander to the darkest of places in his processing of all of this, wishing he could’ve stopped whatever caused her this pain but little did they know, it all traced back to him. In his eagerness to have a moment with All Might, he let go of the very villain that harmed both of his close friends. One more than the other. Although she couldn’t process the pain, having someone else see it brought back everything she wished she forgot.

“Where are you two?!” Katsuki yelled from the living room, breaking them out of their silence. “I-In the bathroom, Kacchan!” Izuku spoke in the same tone he took, noting that he should get dressed before Katsuki misinterpreted the situation. Akira followed suit, once the last hook was fastened, she quickly put everything else on by herself. Katsuki nearly kicked the door down, explosions bursting out of his hands, directed at Izuku, blasting him in the face. “What the fuck are you doing alone with her?!” He blew up the bathroom, sending most of the stuff on the counter out the door.

“I needed help.” She shakes her head and threw her dirty clothes in the hamper, walking past them but took the back of Katsuki's shirt to drag him into the hall. “Relax, you idiot.” She looped a belt through her pants and styled her hair in an asymmetrical bob. “Clean up. By yourself. And I won’t take no for an answer.” She went to greet Inko and Mitsuki, Katsuki's mother. Katsuki gritted his teeth to the point of breaking the longer he had to clean up, every item he had picked up, he gripped with enough force to almost shatter it. But with the fraction of strength he possessed he meticulously put it back in its proper place. Whenever he wasn't grabbing an item, he would silently curse to himself or stomp about in an angry tantrum. In his vehemency, upon dropping something on the floor, he groused "It's all Deku's fault."  
  
Akira was squeezed into a hug by them and a plethora of compliments that she didn’t care for but accepted with a smirk. Izuku seemed to avoid Akira like the plague, hugging his mother and Mitsuki, next giving her the softest hug he’s ever given in existence.

Soon Katsuki joined them all downstairs, his hands deep in his pockets and a grimace on his face. “Done.” He scoffed, not willing to admit that being told what to do was unreasonably hot. He always loved a demanding woman, to top it off, knowing she’d never give him the chance to talk back without some repercussions. “Thanks, dude. Hey, mom can you wash our clothes please? I would like to sleep comfortably. Everything this bra is not.” She complained, accepting the little peck from Inko. “Of course dear. This is the first time you’ve called me mom, Akira.” Inko made notice of her smile, happy that Akira had warmed up to her enough after her own parents passed away to call her that.

“Thank you.” Akira returned the little peck and saw that both Izuku and Katsuki were facing different directions, though both were blushing. “You’re very welcome.” Inko invited Mitsuki to have some tea, as she could see they had plans to leave. “Bye mom, I love you!” Izuku excitedly wishing her a farewell, followed by Katsuki. “See you for dinner, bye.” He moved past us to leave first, positioning his foot by the bottom of the door to hold it open and scrolled through his phone. They went out with him and he tapped the door closed, taking Akira’s hand with his eyes glued to the screen. Scanning over his build with a careful eye, he showed up in a #1 icon snapback rotated backwards, making his black and red hoodie nonsensical. A plain white t-shirt hidden by his half zipped hoodie and a necklace with his last initial rising and falling with each breath, baggy black jeans and combat boots. Eyebrows furrowed in determination, a bubble forming on his exhale that popped over his lips and the tip of his nose.

“Oh yeah, Izu where are we going?” She glides her thumb over Katsuki's knuckles, a strained smile spread across his features. “Since when did _he_ get to choose?” He barked and tightened his fist around his phone, glaring at Izuku. “E-Earlier! Aki said I could choose this time, since you always got to pick.” He cowers away as Katsuki made chase, yanked back by the hand he attached himself to. “Katsu, it’s my fault. So if you’re gonna be mad at anyone. Don’t.” She dragged him along to distance him from Izuku, giving him time to think.

“Why don’t we just go to the mall like we usually do?” His idea made her sigh lightly, knowing that he was only saying that to appease Katsuki. It was a good idea, but she wanted him to speak his mind and choose something he really wanted to do. “You sure you don’t wanna do anything else?” She checked and got a sheepish little shake of his head, “Yeah…” Katsuki soon growled out in agreement, focusing on his slightly cracked phone screen again. She had given up at that point, agreeing with Izuku's compromise and followed his lead, taking a peek at Katsuki's phone. He was searching up women’s clothing, mainly dresses, heels and rompers. She tapped his cheek and heard him softly gasp, tucking his phone in his pocket quickly as he stared at her. “Do you understand the meaning of personal space?” He was blushing, seeming to be the only hue his face took whenever he was near Akira. “Well you took my hand, so you technically invited me into your personal space, idiot.”

“That doesn’t mean you can invade my privacy! Quit looking at my phone, bitch.” Katsuki bit his lip, hoping she wouldn’t think much of the stuff he was looking up and would just drop this entire conversation. Which his hopes were shattered with her next inquiry. “So you dressing up in drag?” She snickers and laughs outright when he shoved her hand away and hastily went inside the mall. “That wasn’t very nice of him or you. What’s going on?” Izuku quietly mumbled into the still air. “He was looking up girly shit.” She actually didn’t mind it, but she would never miss the chance to tease him. She instantly recognized that little sigh from Izuku. “You aren’t supposed to do that to him. You know how he gets whenever you or I make fun of things he enjoys or is passionate about. Why would you ever think that it’s good to tease him but know that it’s bad to tease me? No one likes being teased, no matter how close they are to you, Akira. C’mon, let’s go apologize and by that, I mean you. Only you.” He gently pushed her by her sides, planting her beside Katsuki and took off to give them space.

“Sorry…” She went to peck his cheek but accidentally kissed him as he turned to acknowledge her apology. “Y-Yeah. Apology accepted.” He played it off like he almost expected her to do that, even if it was a fluke, he didn’t complain about it at all. “Cool.” She nods and pats his shoulder, shooting finger guns as she fled. With all three of them spaced out around the mall, they individually took the time to search for the things they had their respective eyes on. Katsuki explored the clothing stores, taking notes on sizes, colors and styles, examining everything closely to match it up to the look he was hoping for. Izuku was scouting out the newest All Might merchandise and comic books he’d been researching, showing he really did mean to come here, but to seek out more things he knew his friends might disapprove of.

While Izuku was feeding his ‘addiction’ and Katsuki decided to choose dress up items, Akira stalked her way into a weapon store. She picked out a cart, items pouring in as she walked through every inch of the place, by the end her cart was halfway filled. When she got to the register, the cashier made a disgruntled expression, not wanting to do their job anyways. She watched carefully as each item was rung up, hoping she didn't go over her budget and thankfully, she hadn't. She finished up and took everything out, seeing if she could find her friends again after taking over an hour on just that alone.

On her way back to the food court, she was texting both of them a meet up spot, when she stopped in place. Her heart was pounding against her rib cage, she dropped everything and even herself, sitting on her knees with her head in her hands. Cacophonous noise sprouted in her mind as if a crowd were screaming, tears of blood streamed down her cheeks until all went quiet.

 _"It's been a while, huh?"_ She stretched out like she'd woken up from a nap, sullen blue-grey eyes swept over her surroundings. She combed through tresses, covering her left eye and stood up to straighten out her clothes. As she acquired her items, she took a moment to send a separate text to Katsuki, telling him a different location. With a hand and her phone tucked in one pocket, her bags over her shoulder, she sauntered towards the back exit of the mall. She leaned on the wall and waited, picking at her nails in her boredom. Soon the door creaked open, Katsuki curiously peeked his head out. "We really shouldn't be out here, Ak-..." His sentence died off as he gawked at her face, he positions something to keep them from getting locked out and brought his hand to her cheek. "What happened? Why _you?_ " He hissed at her, resulting in his wrist being bit and him snatching his hand back.

 _"So angry, Bom-Bom. We had so much fun last time."_ She points to the faint scar under his jaw, running a finger over it. He leans into her touch, unable to help himself in the moment. "Having to explain this wasn't as fun as you think. Not one to lie directly to my mom's face." He pulled away, going back to the door and swung it open for her. "C'mon, the nerd's waiting. I just have one question. Is she hurting again?" He was satisfied at the soft, _"No."_ That she gave and knocked to tell her to hurry up, she joined him inside and messed with his hair. _"Since when did you care? You couldn't even notice the change before. Now you're acting like you're some expert."_ She held out a walkie-talkie, which he took and laughed. "I'm not dumb. You have a completely different voice, different look and actions. I know she'd never cut me, she's crazy not criminally insane like you." He wiped her eyes and kisses her forehead, holding no attraction for the other. She seemed to take great offense to his immediate friend zoning. "What are you thinking about doing for lunch? I know you just ate but maybe have that on your mind for the future. Oh and black or purple?" He asked such an innocent question, trying to figure out if her favorite color had changed or not. _"I like both. And you're an asshole."_ She aimed to walk away but he quickly twirled her into his arms, a sincere smile graced his lips. "Dawn, I was going to buy you lunch. I remembered you from almost half a decade ago. How am I an asshole?" His voice soft in the restless silence as he drew her closer.

 _"I thought you didn't... You never talked to me or asked for me."_ She laid her palm along his shoulder, massaging little circles into his collar bone. "How could I forget? I still have the mark you gave me." He sat down with her in his lap, having her rest atop him. "You were eleven at the time and staying over my house cause Deku was sick. I couldn't guess what was wrong with you, but you were just stuck staring out the window. When I finally got closer, you wrestled me to the floor. I scraped my jaw on my chair, accidentally breaking it on our way down. That was the first time I ever saw your eyes like that. I knew it wasn't Akira but you never spoke until my mom came upstairs, you just sat on my lap like you're doing now. I don't know if my mom could tell at all, it was just something that freaked me out for sometime and then I never really heard from you again after she woke up. I didn't think to ask about you either and I'm sorry about that. I also don't know what triggers you. What happened this time to make you come out? Did you just wanna talk to me?" He uncovers her face and puts his chin on her head. _“Stress. When I was over your house that one time, I couldn’t help but think about how Izuku was. I was so worried about him and it got to me. I care about both of you a lot and I hate knowing that something is wrong but I have no power to help you. And just today, a lot has been going on and she got overwhelmed. I took advantage of that feeling and got control, I didn’t expect it to last long or for you to even want to talk to me like this. But it was worth a shot and hey, it kinda worked? I got you to hold me again. That’s all I wanted.”_ She smiled when he kissed her hair and whispered, “I’ll always hold you no matter what. You have my word.”

“Never getting a reason for you calling me an asshole, huh?” He sighed with a soft chuckle at her restful state, thinking over what he had told her. That day was so chock full of a myriad of emotions. The excitement of knowing that she was coming over, to curiosity of her mental absence, next fear of who the person that attacked him was because it was his gut feeling that declared it wasn’t Akira, then pain and panic. Having to lie in front of the woman who raised him, it made him fidgety, even now. Acting like it was no big deal and that he could handle it himself, to ease her, though he knew it was wrong. Sometimes you have to lie to the ones you love to spare them. Or so he thought.

He shook her lightly, standing while cradling her in his arms. Admiring how sweet she looked in her sleep, he gave her a little kiss then chose to wake her up. “Enough sleep, we’ve got shit to do.” He balanced her on him, gently tapping her cheek and beamed as her eyes opened slowly. “What, crazy? And knock that smile off your dumb face.” She stepped to the side and entered the main part of the mall, going to the spot she’d told Izuku to meet her at. Having no recollection of the passed minutes she'd spent with him alone. Katsuki stuck his arm on her head as soon as he got there, scanning over everything laid out on the table. He chose not to comment on it and bopped his elbow to her skull before she had the chance to say anything about it.

Izuku awkwardly smiled at them, easily noticing the way they were looking at him and he shoveled the merchandise carefully back into the bag. "S-So... Did you two finally talk or should I give you more space? I think that that would be good, you know? I don't wanna get in the way of whatever you two have planned and I know you definitely don't want me to interfere. What do you want for lunch? The line is pretty long but I don't mind waiting while you guys spend some time together. That actually sounds like a great idea! I'll go. J-Just text me for whatever you want." He answered himself, not leaving any room for them to object before he'd gotten up and left. "Izuku..." She threw her hands up in defeat, nudging Katsuki with her elbow. "Don't. Cause I'm not stopping him, the dumb ass nerd." He pulled out a chair for himself and just as she was about to sit down herself, he pulled a chair out from under her. Laughing his ass off as she winced, but his laughter died down the longer she stayed on the floor. "Are you okay? It was supposed to be a harmless prank, did I really hurt you?" He gasped when she flipped the chair he sat in over, landing him on the floor with her. "I can't move, Kat." She groaned, actively trying to sit up but to no avail.

Instead of complaining over the ache in his chest, he helped her up and softly set her down in the booth, giving her something soft to rest on. "You can sit by me. It's not like you really did any damage. You know how I had to go through physical therapy? I have a minor injury, I'm gonna say minor because to me it's not that serious in my opinion. It's just difficult to stand up from a completely horizontal position." He planted his arms on the table, gripping his hair as he let out a trembling, tender little sigh. "I know... I've known for so long and I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." A hushed whisper freed itself from his pursed lips, his was wracked with guilt, consumed by the knowledge of how he'd affected her. Whereas Izuku hadn't a clue, Katsuki still had nightmares of that day, every single memory, action and words unspoken etched into his thoughts. He'd been stewing over every last detail for years, seeing if he could've done anything to erase his mistakes or prevent them from happening in the first place. Wondering if any of this was worth dwelling on, it's not like he could go back and stop what events transpired. He bitterly regretted not being strong enough to fend for himself, that Izuku had more courage than him, even without his quirk.

His head whipped to her direction after hearing her raised tone, "Katsuki!" His scattered gaze bounced around, not centering on her. "What do you want, woman?" He sat rather stiffly, being forced to look at her from the hand dug into his cheeks. "You're doing that thing Deku does, which you hate. Why did you say sorry?" She let him go and scouted out Izuku's hair, just to see how far he'd gone. "No reason. Do you feel better?" His answer was short whilst not entirely giving her any insight into his mental state, she knew that once he got like this, she wasn't going to get much of anything out of him. Nor did she really want to try. It was a moot point, all he would do was deflect, angering her and making her yell at him and then he'd yell back to get in the last word, rinse and repeat. The only person to typically break them of this cycle was Izuku, he hated it down to his very core, never one to want to raise his voice, especially not at them. "Yeah, I said that before. You didn't hurt me at all. Just cause I couldn't get up immediately doesn't mean you like killed me or something drastic. Relax." Her words did nothing but stack on to the guilt he was experiencing, he picked the skin off his cuticles. "Still. I'm sorry, so shut up about it, will ya?"

"Fine. You know what? You're fucking impossible sometimes. I'm trying to express that I care and that I wanna listen to you tell me about what's wrong and shit but you can't get it through that thick skull of yours that someone cares. I don't need this bullshit, Katsuki. And for explanation. THIS is why you're an asshole." She got up in a huff, going to get something to help her cool off, the touch of fire on her tongue. He reached out to her without another word spoken, he allowed her to leave, giving up on pursuing someone that was clearly out of his league. Why did he ever think that he could woo her? Hell, that he stood a chance at all. With a world filled with variously eligible bachelors, far more powerful and deserving of her. He jumped at the sudden chill of glass at his fingertips, a cherry lime kakigōri was placed in his hand, adorned with tapioca pearls and mochi; forgetting that he hadn't put it down. "Your favorite." Izuku kindly grinned, his was dressed with extra sweetened condensed milk and green tea syrup, a tuft of cotton candy on top. He set his kakigōri down, holding Akira's in hand. "Take this to her and don't say anything." He sat across from him, humming softly as he ate.

Katsuki brought his dessert closer, instead of putting it down to show he left any inkling of coming back, he took Akira's off the table and stormed off. "He's never gonna learn." Izuku's snide comment was overheard by a bubbly passerby. "Deku!" Ochaco nearly floated in her glee, seeing that he was alone. He stuttered to a stop and uneasily looked around, now picturing how pathetic he must've looked eating by himself and then thinking about how she didn't have one herself. Unconsciously rambling and causing much of an unnerving aura around them, Ochaco took the spot Katsuki previously filled in wait. Once Izuku cleared his head of all the minutiae, he offered up his kakigōri to her in a quiet gesture to share. At his offer, she had already reached for the dessert and took a spoonful for herself absentmindedly. Blush arose upon their features at the point where they registered what had transpired. Ochaco sent the bowl back his way, gingerly touching her lips after their indirect kiss. The break in the silence was from him in that moment. "I just thought it looked weird that I was by myself a-and I thought that maybe you'd wanna have some or I-I could buy you one! If you want...?"

He recalled the conversation he'd had with Akira earlier this morning, did she call Ochaco to the mall to mess with him? No, Akira was mean sometimes but if that were really true, she'd be downright evil. Was this all happenstance, or was there something more in play? Ochaco may be out here of her own volition but more importantly what was he going to do now that she was here? As he catalogued everything he ran his hands over the rim of the bowl, messing with the edge until shaved ice landed on his finger. Brimming with anxieties practically leaking from his pores, he stood and so did she. "H-How would you like your kakigōri? I can make it like mine i-if you liked that. But then if you do like mine, we could still share it! I'll just get another spoon, you know so we can eat at the same time. Waiting too long will have it melt and I hate when that happens, cold soup is too weird for me. I don't think it would be soup, cause it's just a flavored water solution whereas soup typically has a broth type liquid. Maybe it'd be closer to a gazpacho?" He had lost her mid sentence but she shrugged, having no real idea of what he was rambling on about. "We could split yours. W-With two spoons, of course!" She excitedly compromised, albeit still being a bundle of nerves. Izuku welded his mouth shut and nodded frantically, wringing his hands together as he rushed off to get her a spoon.

Escaping with his hurricane of thoughts, the positive and the negative analysis of his actions and words towards her. His usual calm had been replaced by a carousel of outcomes, each one more worrying than the last. Every footfall over the white pristine tile felt like a step towards some misaligned fantasy; already his knuckles were whitened and breathing shallow. He clutched the spoon he'd unknowingly grasped, turning on his heel in a motionless animation and returned to Ochaco. "Sp... Spoon?" His inner turmoil was deafened by Ochaco's affirmative grunt and soft, warm hands touching his own. She carefully took the spoon and joyously giggled when he plopped down in his chair, enjoying his company over the shared kakigōri. "Come to think about it, shouldn't I take your spoon cause I put my mouth on it? You want this one?" She noted but much to her surprise, Izuku had already begun eating with the aforementioned spoon.

At her realization, he bit down on the spoon and glanced up at her, his face aflame with embarrassment. Through every little preponderance he had over her arrival, her eating from his utensil had slipped his mind, being so inconsequential in this situation. As his jaw tightened with eyes locked on hers, the plastic of the spoon gave way; the handle falling on the floor and head between his teeth. She rose to help him to her dismay, a little droplet of blood came from the cut on his lip. "Midoriya..." She searched his face for any hint that he knew that he'd hurt himself, as if he hadn't felt it; he collected the broken pieces and threw them away. His next move was getting a new spoon, wordlessly leaving her alone once more. She fiddled with the idea that he didn't want her there, absolutely certain she was disturbing him in his wish to be alone. She leaned back against the booth, taking small bites here and there, lost in thought. He waves his hand in front of her, gaining her attention rather quickly. She tilts her head towards him, hoping he'd say anything to her. "I wanted you to know I was okay, Uraraka." Even with the blush covering both of their cheeks, he was a lot calmer than before, breaking his spoon snapped him out of his train of thought. "That's good! I thought you were annoyed by me being here because you weren't talking as much as you usually do." Her blatant honesty threw him for a loop. "W-What? No, no! I was thinking about a bunch of things, I didn't mean to give you the wrong idea! You also really liked that, huh?" He points to the near empty bowl, followed by a tsunami of apologies from her and offers to buy him another once she had the money to do so.

"It's no big deal, really! I'm glad you enjoyed it that much." He gulped slightly in his chary at Ochaco's stubbornness, not allowing him to dissuade her. "Keep this in your mind Deku, because this is an Ochaco promise and I never break my promises! I will repay you for your kindness and get you another kakigōri with all the bells and whistles you had on this one!" Her stance was one of someone ready to fight, but even with how she stood, he softly laughed from how cute she was. "Alright but at least can I get us another?" He bore his hand to her and she took it with a gentle squeeze. "You don't have to waste money on me, y'know? I had more than enough after accidentally eating all of yours..." She felt ashamed that she had done something as rude as that, even if she had no intention of doing so, cursing her scatterbrained self. "Not a waste if I want it for myself as well. And like you, once I put my mind to something, it can't be changed." He feigned confidence to be more vocal around her. He never wanted to give her the inkling that he was mad or upset by her, truly feeling at ease now.

They walked together to the cafe within the mall and being courteous to her, he gave her a say in how their dessert was dressed, basically giving her a distinctive half of it. His half was what he'd chosen originally, grinning stupidly as she excitedly chose out her toppings with a side of mochi for herself which she aimed to spend her own money on but Izuku covered it all. Her half was covered in sweetened condensed milk like his and melon syrup, the extra mochi were precariously placed around the rim, it being one of her favorite snacks to chow down on.

Arriving back at the table, they took the seats across from one another. "Oh! I saw Bakugo on my way over, he looked really pissed. Is he okay?" She quietly asked as if he'd materialize by his name being mentioned. "He's always pissed. It's almost like that's the only emotion he can show." His demeanor seemed to shift at her question, really not too keen on the topic she picked. Putting his head on his hand as he sectioned off his portion with a close eye. "I didn't know. He was sweet to that other girl. Akira, I think?" His lip twitched up at the name. "Well, that's cause she's been our best friend since childhood. She's actually pretty awesome with a powerful quirk, the mechanics of it I haven't had time to document fully. And she somehow puts up with Kacchan. She was kinda mean to me but she's getting better at it. Very slowly. Still a huge tease from time to time." He perked up and chuckles lightly, making her look down at the bowl. "Tease you how?" She was unsure of his definition of teasing, feeling a bit worried with how scary Akira looked. "Uh? Some name calling. Messing up my hair or occasionally pinching my cheeks, like my mom does. But most of the time, she's pretty chill. She doesn't like getting into people's personal business or rather interact with people much at all. I guess you could say she's an introvert with minimal extroverted tendencies, not exclusively something common for her nature but it's nice to see her around others but us. I went completely off topic..." He briefly sighs and shushed himself to listen to her response.

"She seems like a cool person and honestly I thought of something much worse when you said she teased you. Cause, I mean... She's kinda scary. But maybe I shouldn't assume that people are bad because they look it." She felt like she never said enough compared to him, something always rolling off his tongue at the drop of a hat. She still held a bright smile, curious to hear what he'd ramble on about next. "Truthfully, her teasing is very tame compared to how bad it used to be. She really grew to dislike upsetting me, but can't grasp that doing the same to others isn't nice. Most of the time she gets away with it cause of how intimidating she can be, if only she'd smile more. That's a sight to behold. Shame it only happens once in a blue moon..." His train of thought tapered off into a low, yet audible mumble. At the last sentence, Ochaco couldn't muster up her voice, hesitant to dive further into this conversation. The improbable chance that he held feelings for his best friend kept her mouth sealed but her chest was aching and screaming out for answers, sensing that continuing would only make this sensation worse; plopping a piece of mochi into her mouth.

He automatically felt that something was off by her, although his hand was slightly shaking, he laid it gently atop hers. "She's just a friend, a good one but my best friend. You are too!" He tried to smooth it over and give her peace of mind. Noting that that clarification made her gorgeous brown luster happiness in soft twinkles, exciting him in a way he's never felt before. The shift of her hand put theirs together, his hands were a bit larger than hers and more callous at that. In the time it took for them to feel less anxious about holding hands, a familiarly harsh tone roared from behind Izuku. "DEKU!" Katsuki stomped over with Akira in tow, who was trying to stop the blonde. "Run, Izu!" She warned, sending Izuku into action, having no idea what he'd done this time to annoy Katsuki, he thought it best to save Ochaco as well; taking the kakigōri with them.

Then began the chase, Izuku had picked up Ochaco by now as she cradled their dessert halfway across the mall. Akira was tugging and gripping onto things, even throwing stuff in front of Katsuki to maybe slow him down, doing absolutely nothing to stop his rage. Only becoming angrier at the sight of Izuku's quirk activating, feeling that same sense of betrayal as he had yesterday upon learning that after all these years he'd been lied to by one he considered to be his best friend. Explosions fizzling like carbonated soda, he ripped off the jacket he was wearing, sending Akira to the floor once more since that was the only anchor she'd been holding onto. This time, despite his feelings for her, he kept on his path of destruction, solely focused on the thought of Izuku's head in his hands. When Izuku saw that Katsuki paid no mind to Akira in her distress, his body reacted by itself, sacrificing himself, mainly his body to protect Ochaco again. He didn't feel his bones breaking from the adrenaline coursing through his veins, launching himself through the mall doors on a route to somewhere safe, deducing any plausible location near here that had one, lots of space and two, hiding spots. Mainly for Ochaco, he could fend for himself. Questions forming on his tongue on what could've been said that would send Katsuki into a rage like that, but only a singular answer sprung up in his head.

_The bathroom._

Out of every possible reason for Katsuki to be doing this, that was all he had. Feeling the soft pull of the fabric he wore, he glanced down at Ochaco. "Hold this." She traded out the bowl as she jumped out of his arms, already floating above him and touched him next to help him do the same. Catching on to her plan, he sent a gust of wind to direct them over to the roof of the mall, both of them laid on their backs to hide from Katsuki. "I'm so sorry about this." He whispered and tilted his head to see her giggling softly. "No, it's fine. This is actually really fun." She was genuinely enjoying all of this, the excitement and hoopla. His body felt like lead as he sort of flopped his hand by hers, when she joined their hands, he gained the strength to smile with the pain settling into his nerves. Hands connected and backs on warm concrete, they marveled at the blue sky, waiting for all below to remedy itself.

Due to all the commotion Katsuki caused, the mall security came to sweep him up, apologizing to the civilians and let him sit in the camera room where he could cool off. He sat with his nails dug into his pant leg, knee bouncing rapidly as he watched the security guards. "Do you understand all of the problems you just caused by your reckless behaviour? Over some girl to make it worse." The female guard carelessly flicked her hand towards the screen, earning a confused look from the teen. "You mean pink cheeks there? I barely know her, that's gonna be my girlfriend." He points to Akira with an air of cockiness about him, the smallest smirk on his lips. "I was trying to destroy that damn nerd, Deku. And you two got in my way." He grumbles and crosses his arms, showing no sense of respect for authority towards the two. They both looked at him, neither having any clue that the individual on the camera was even female, surmising that it was one of his male classmates trying to stop him. "That's a female?" She spoke again, eyeing the screen closely to find any indication of that claim. "Yeah what are you blind?" He barked back, clearly not understanding how they couldn't see what he was seeing.

From the perspective of the guards they were staring at an individual with shoulder length hair covering one eye, a loosely buttoned shirt with Katsuki's jacket draped over them, baggy pants too big for them and sneakers. There were no defining features to truly gauge whether or not he was telling the truth, turning back to him with visible disbelief. "She binds, dumbasses." He scoffs lightly, crossing his fingers in front of his face while watching Akira in his jacket, thinking he should just leave it with her. He examined the fact that his sleeves were too big for her, the tips of her finger gripping the fabric with the rest of her hand was covered. He stood up and kicked the chair away to distract the guards, catching her little wink whereas they didn't, that way she could disappear off the camera without being searched for.

He snatched the chair back and sat peacefully, with a sly smirk and his hands tucked behind his head. "Sorry about that, thought I saw a bug." He pointed to the door and showed that it was wide open with his jacket hanging off it, but no one was there or anywhere near. "Can I get that? I'm a bit cold." The guards gawked at the article of clothing, looking back at the cameras with Akira nowhere to be seen, not appearing on any of them. Katsuki swiped his jacket off the door handle and put it on. "H-How?" The male guard spoke up this time, gathering that maybe this was an elaborate prank set up by a couple of kids. But in reality, Akira was already in the stairwell walking up to where Izuku and Ochaco were. “You can go, kid just don’t cause any more trouble or we’ll call your parents.” The thought of his mother having to be called to reprimand him set him straight, nodding stiffly and backed out to run.

"What was all that about?" Ochaco spoke up after close to thirty minutes of cloud watching, hearing the door of the roof open, sent a spike of panic into them. "Guys, he's calmed down. You're safe." Akira sat by the two, having the key dangling off of her finger to show they weren't stuck up there. "Aki, what the hell happened? Why was he trying to kill me? I didn't even do anything to him, at least I don't think I did. What did you say?" His breathing was ragged, straining himself to say this to her. "Bathroom." Was all she said, a confused look graced Ochaco's face and a relieving worry hit Izuku's. "Bathroom?" Ochaco repeated, thinking she hadn't heard her right and by the fact the Izuku completely calmed down at the simple answer. Akira nodded, saying nothing more on the subject and hoisted Izuku up over her shoulder. "Dumbass." She snapped her fingers to get Ochaco to come with her, who skittishly followed behind her. "How did you get the key? Those belong to the security guards." Izuku asked as Akira unlocked the door, shoving them back in her pockets. "Stole 'em during the commotion. Stupid fuckers are useless." She growled.

Shock spread over the younger two, over her nonchalantly admitting that she stole something and that she was able to do it in the first place. "W-Wait, you stole?! Akira you said you'd stop doing that!" If he had a leg to stand on, she may have listened to him. Akira turned to Ochaco and stared her down for a moment, shutting down everything within the brunette. A quiet snarl left Akira's lips at the show of cowardice, snatching Ochaco's hand in her own and dragged her down into the main area of the mall. Akira let her hand go and kept on without her, adjusting Izuku to a more comfortable position. Almost certain he passed out from the pain, as she made her way to the school; Recovery Girl could have him fixed up by late in the afternoon. Which she did, after Akira agreed to watch over him until she came back.

The injuries were reported to the teachers, but all while Izuku was unconscious, Akira snooped through the medical drawers and cabinets, pick-pocketing little things that wouldn't be missed. Flinching at the slightest of noises because she couldn't afford getting caught. Taking her seat by Izuku just as Recovery Girl opened the door. "He's good to go home, give it a couple of hours. He'll be good as new." Chiyo tapped Akira on the hand with her cane sized needle. "I heard you... Just wanted to ask you something." Akira turned her chair to face her, hunching forwards to get comfortable. "Do you think you could maybe fix my spine, or at the very least provide me with some pain medication? I can't walk without almost passing out sometimes and I fell twice today." She softly groaned as Chiyo motioned for her to stand and take her shirt off, looking at the extent of the damage. "Why have you gone untreated for so long? These staples are close to rusted." Chiyo ushered Akira over to a hospital bed and had her lay on her stomach. "Most doctors refused to treat me because the anesthesia never worked on me. It's apparently against the law to do something that would help an ailing individual but you know how that goes." She grumbled and put her face directly on the pillow. Chiyo numbed the area instead of fully putting Akira under. "You may feel a small pinch."

Akira gave her a thumbs up, used to being in immense amounts of pain that a small pinch would be a luxury. "Why doesn't anesthesia work? Do you have an allergic reaction or is it completely irresponsive?" She plucked out each staple one by one, surprised that Akira wasn't squirming or uttering even a soft, "ow." Chiyo gawked at how her spine healed itself, pulling her mask on as soft blue fumes irradiated from charred, obsidian bones. Chiyo made quick work of her sutures to compensate for her fleeting consciousness, closing up the skin much like her shoulder and evacuated to open the window. "I now understand why it's never worked." She comments as she fans the lingering fumes out. "Do you know what diethyl ether is?" After seeing the fake confusion on Akira's face, she went on to explain. "Diethyl ether is the base compound of anesthesia. It seems that your body somehow creates it, a viable reason why you don't respond to anesthetics whatsoever. Have you ever experienced headaches, nausea and vomiting, slurred speech, loss of motor coordination, or wheezing? From your youth up until now." She had a clipboard in hand once Akira turned to look at her, still absorbing the information from before. "Uh, headaches once in a while. Nausea and vomiting, nope. I've never slurred my speech or lost control of myself. I was pushed down the second time and a prank gone wrong the times I fell today. My lungs are great."

After marking things down on her clipboard without a word, she continued her array of questions. "Any distortion in perceptions of time and space or hallucinations?" She looked at the nearby hospital window and saw it crack, multiple faces of people she didn't recognize were displayed in the shattered remains. They may not be anyone she knew personally, but she felt like they were people she could trust. One reflection waved and when Akira blinked they were gone. "Akira, are you listening? Do you experience any distortions in space or time?" The clicking of her pen did nothing more than make Akira stand up to grab it, mere inches from her face. “No.” She retreated to the bed and smirked. "You shouldn't be able to walk. How are you doing that?" Chiyo went back to her notes, writing this all down. "I can still feel my legs. And frankly, my spine now as well. Hurts a bit but I love the stitches more than the staples." She hums, laying down and sitting up over and over with little difficulty now. "Careful, those are fresh. But if numbing agents take no effect on you, why ask for amphetamine?" Chiyo still brought out the medication for her, along with her clothes. "They do to a degree, helps for an hour or so. It's all I need." She quietly thanked her for her clothes and put them on, meeting the emerald eyes of Izuku. "So, you good?" Akira went over to take his hand, choosing not to comment on how red his face was.

"Y-Yeah..." He yips softly as she yanked him to his feet. "Oh, Recovery Girl, could I maybe get a copy of that information you wrote down about Aki? I would love to study it and maybe help her understand and utilize her abilities better. Come to think about it, isn't diethyl ether not only discontinued in the medical field but also a highly flammable substance?" His eyes sparkled from the topic, grabbing a scrap piece of paper to jot this down for his hero studies journal. "Midoriya slow down and take it easy, you both should be resting." Chiyo saw that neither of them were listening to her, Akira nudging Izuku and giggling as he was so focused on writing that he didn't budge. "We got a lunch date, Kat's done." She tucked her phone away and dragged Izuku along as he scribbled. "Thank you so much, Recovery Girl!" He shouted and closed the door behind them.

Akira ruffled his hair to get his attention, his head lolled to the side. "I'm gonna set that on fire if you don't walk, Izuku." He quickly met her stride, eyes half on the road and on the paper. At the last pen stroke, he pinched her sleeve. "Out of everything you and Kacchan could've talked about, why did it have to be what happened in the bathroom? I would've thought that maybe if you didn't want to cause a scene like that, that you'd choose your words wisely. Or left the question unanswered like you do to me half the time. I don't want to have to consistently run for my life because he just so happens to decide that he wants to kill me. I can't keep breaking my bones to get away. Do you realize how bad that hurts?" His last remark fell flat when she turned to him, cerulean flames coming from her irises. She gripped his collar and lifted him up, bringing him inches from her face. "Are you really about to ask me if I understand your pain? How it feels to constantly be in pain, every single day of my life while all you have to do is run to a hospital or get healed by Recovery Girl? Do you really fucking think that you have it worse, you dumb, insignificant child? YOU can take medicine for your pain! YOU can get surgery to fix yourself! YOU CAN GET HEALED!" She threw him down and clenched her fists, shaking slightly in sorrow. "I lost the ability to stand and walk after my spine and leg were destroyed. I could barely feed myself and even now it's difficult to do regular things. I felt so fucking helpless when Katsuki pulled that chair out from underneath and I laid on my back for five minutes as he laughed. I have to have myself elevated when I sleep or I can't get up because my spine locks up. I don't care about your pain!" Her voice wavers as she bites back tears, Izuku reached out to touch her hand and stood up to hug her.

She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, surely she'd be getting his shirt wet if her tear ducts functioned. Katsuki's naturally defensive stance lacked its vigor as he overheard the entirety of the conversation, pushing his pride aside for his ailing friend and joined in the hug. "I'm so sorry for hurting you." He whispered in one of her ears while Izuku told her reassuring words in the other. In the solace of their embrace, she felt her heart warm and she began giggling, resulting in soft snorts and a mild wheeze from her jubilation. Crimson eyes met emerald ones, no malice dwelling in pools of blood that were Katsuki's irises and Izuku could tell he had no will to fight him, for now. "I win." Her soft declaration left them both in a state of confusion. "Won what?" Katsuki moved out of the hug as did Izuku. "Yeah, what are you talking about Aki?" Izuku added.

"Peace. I got the peace I wanted. So I win." She took their hands in stride, bringing them back to the mall with a skip in her step. They both concluded that they'd never get a comprehensible answer and simply followed along. Katsuki gently squeezed her hand to get her attention, her eyes wandered over to his position with a mild curiosity. "Hm?" She hums and halts to solely focus on him. "I don't care about what happened in the bathroom, just never do it again." His words were directed towards Izuku, who nodded frantically and held his hands up in defense. "B-But what if she needs help? She doesn't live with you. And I was just trying to be helpful because she needed it at the time. I mean if you don't want me to do it, that's your decision but it's not hers so I can't really say that it'll never happen again. I'm glad you care a lot about her but if I can help her in any way, I think that I should. I won't do it if she doesn't want me to. But if she asked for my help again, I won't hesitate to do so." He countered and backed away, sure that he was going to be pummeled right then and there. Akira interjected before Katsuki had the chance to begin any type of argument with Izuku. "I don't mind him helping me. He does make a good point, we don't live together, Kat. Next, I trust that he won't ogle me while helping me with something like putting on a bra." She went back on their path to the mall, not letting them utter another word to each, shutting down anything else Katsuki wanted to say.

Whilst at the mall food court, steady hands threading fingers through bi-coloured hair to help him think, his options were seemingly endless; the line behind him growing rather impatient with each passing second. As level headed as he was, he had trouble choosing between certain things, most finding him to be fickle in that regard. His focus wasn't on the food, of course. The cashier began with a sigh, "Sir, I know that it's not really any of my business though in all honesty I don't really care for your answer but, are you okay? You're holding up the line and I want to go on my break soon to drink sake and die." The cashier's voice tosses him out of his debate, centering his cold gaze on the individual. "I wonder if my dad did what he did because he loved me or was it out of spite, since he knew I would surpass him one day?" Todoroki asked, not so much as a question but as a realization. He casts his eyes downwards, locked on his left hand with a wistful sigh. Not known for oversharing, doing it here was meaningless to him. "Look, I am asking, nay, _BEGGING_ for you to save your existential, crisis-induced monologue for when you're at home, sir. This. Is. A. _Fucking_. _**McDonald's**_. I do NOT get paid enough to hear this nor do I have the patience to wait this long for you to pick between a shitty ass burger, some wack-ass chicken sandwich or a goddamn salad. The same shitty lettuce will be in all of them, so please for the love of GOD, just pick something already." The cashier was irate and for good reason, he'd been standing there for nearly ten minutes, not saying or doing anything. "I'm sorry, I'll just have a cheeseburger and fries." He put his head down and swiftly walked off after paying for his meal.

He stood in front of the empty table almost statuesque, external stimuli not phasing him as his eyes set on a ladybug crawling along the circumference, seconds ticking by as he remained there. If he hadn't blinked, rarely at that, he could keep his emotions in check. "Todoroki, are you okay?" Iida gesticulated and brought himself around to face him. Izuku had overheard the entire conversation, being in the line that Todoroki had held up, going over to help Todoroki get his food and awaited his answer with Iida.

"I'm fine." He bowed and took his tray to the far side of the food court, sitting under a potted plant. His head rested on his wrist while he sat in solitude, admiring the position the fake plant was given, not having anyone telling it what to do or expecting so much out of it. Tracing the underside of the leaves with his palm, finding that the ladybug from before, or he hoped it was, crawled onto his hand. He examined the little creature, a quaint smile gracing his face as he marveled at it, finding joy in its carefree existence. Jealous as he was over this insect that he could crush so easily, letting the ladybug go back to the leaf it previously inhabited. "You'll never know how lucky you are." His tone was low, edging on a whisper but he hadn't known he'd been overheard by another.

The chair before him was pulled out and taken, eyes like his bore into him, boots kicked up on the table. "Lucky?" Akira jeered at the older teen and set her feet on the floor, his tray of food pulled in her direction. "T-... Akira. No one asked you to come over here, let alone steal my food." He had no intention of eating it anyways, but it was the principal of the thing. "You're right. I have something to talk to you about." She got up to get him ketchup packets and a large soda for herself, setting it down in front of him. "I dislike sugary drinks. What do you want from me?" He pecked at his fries, forfeiting his meal to her after seeing the simple gesture of her hand. Not wanting the food to go to waste, even if it was disgusting to him. "I can't just want to talk to my classmate? You see, I only have one question." She took a drawn out slurp of her Sakura McFizz, offering him a fry as one last opportunity to eat his purchased meal, which he turned down.

She gazed at his heterochromatic eyes and bicolored hair, to her it was beautiful but one thing stuck out to her. His eyes bred a sense of familiarity within her, one that she saw every day she looked in the mirror. His left side was what she focused on more, thinking of a better time where she too looked as such. Their eyes held the same icy, hollow blue contempt for the world, as they both had a sneaking suspicion in the back of their minds of who the other person was. At the moment they both noticed, it sparked curiosity within them, but not enough for fear that if it were true what this knowledge would bring forth. "Not to be rude but you have something in your teeth." As she held her hand over her mouth to get whatever he was talking about, Todoroki was quick to not miss the chance to address it. "Why are your eyes like mine?" His countenance conveyed a disturbing awareness of the possibility, out of every thing that she could say, it would all be unexpected to him. She showed him her teeth, getting a little wave from him to show she was fine. "Oh, to answer the question. I was born with turquoise eyes. Thanks for the help with my teeth."

Letting the information sink in as his eyes wandered to her hair, seeing the scattered red locks within her almost fully black hair. He sprung up another question, ceasing her initial wishes once again. "Were you born with red hair or is that dyed?" He made a mental note, that no matter the answer she gave next, he had many other questions that needed to be answered. "I was born with red hair, got it dyed a few months back." She avidly lied about how her hair was altered but the beginning was the truth, resulting in him getting up from his seat to leave without so much as a goodbye. Not that she expected him to but his manners were lacking as of late.

Evidence cementing itself in his head, coupled with the traits that only he shared with his relatives and that by fact, having eyes like his were purely a genetic trait as rare as it is. He could dismiss his suspicions if Akira simply had one thing that differentiates herself from him, or more so his father but he could remember those eyes until the day he dies.

Traversing back to his abode, with hypothesis piling up on top of hypothesis, massive doubts over his father’s past and if this were true, what this would mean for his already destroyed family. Would his father own up to this if he presented this information to him? And if this theory was just that, a theory? Something he created to point blame on the man who tormented him for the better years of his childhood. Whose degradation and abuse tied his stomach in knots. Maybe it was all some misunderstanding, just his mind wanting to pin something on his father to give him more reason to despise the man.

The gentle current swept a sakura blossom past the tip of his nose, breaking him of his little world and pause on the stone path leading to his home. Sliding the door open, listening to the roar of his name and the added hand on his back, erupted a low sigh from the teen. "Yes, father?" These formalities were what he was raised on, not looking his father in the eyes but on the tatami mats below him. "Where were you? You missed out on hours of training!" Endeavor was met with no resistance as he dragged his son towards the dojo. "I went to the mall. It was my day off, father." Even if he hadn't thought it was backtalk, his forearm and face soon struck the floor. "Who told you that you could leave?!" His father awaited his answer, granted with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry. I met someone." He lifted himself up to his knees, bowing before his father, eyes still locked on the floor as he spoke. "She looked like me. Her eyes and hair were yours, father. Could I have another sister? One you never told us about?" He expected a swift punishment but wasn't harmed, glancing up through his lashes he saw Endeavor straighten himself.

"So she's alive." He left Todoroki on the floor as he went on to his own training, subsiding his son's for now. "Is that why you mourned over the Takashi family, father?" He hoped he hadn't spoken out of turn, stuck bowing and unable to see if anything was coming. "Fifteen years of uncertainty. No calls or texts from that woman. Hiding what could've been the greatest addition to the Todoroki family. I could've hone her skills and trained her alongside you, made her stronger than anyone ever imagined. With her mother's quirk and mine, she could be absolutely unstoppable, Shoto! No one would ever have the chance to get in her way, if she only knew how strong I could have made her!" He ranted as he trained, leaving Todoroki to stew over everything that his father was saying.

Todoroki found himself at a loss for words, confused, facing the unavoidable notion of how horrible his father truly was. At this time, as he had experienced it before, it involved a storm of memories and concrete perceptions that swarm around manifested a bitter taste slicking his tongue. His muscles and his voice tense, pure vitriol spilling from his mouth like a pot boiling over.

He stood and quietly asked to be excused, once he got the confirmation, he went to his room. The trickle of snow sprinkled from his fingers in a short trail from his bedroom door to the mattress, not only was his mind clouded by anguish, he lost control of his ice. Freezing the edge of his bed as he laid there, imagining what it would've been like to have someone by his side through all those years. Someone who could understand his burdens and pains, maybe it would've been better because he'd have someone to share that with. Envious of the life she must've led without the torment his father put him through, something he'd have to suffer with his entire life, resenting the man who brought him into this world.

Jealous that she had loving parents, ones who didn't abuse or fear her, paranoid by what had been done in the household. Having a mother so terrified of her spouse that just seeing that her son had his eyes brought her to madness, broke her to the point where she harmed her own son, inflicting a burn he mulled over for months. Stuck looking in the mirror at his damaged reflection, disgusting in himself and what his father molded him into.

Little did he know, the same man that abused him was a hero in the eyes of Akira, she fawned and respected Endeavor, whilst having no insight into his personal life but only seeing how hard he worked to get to where he was today. Not being bumped up just because he catered to the public's wishes and granted them with all of his time and let them worship him.

She tossed her hands up in defeat, knowing she wasn't going to get to ask her question and took the tray back to the table where Katsuki was ignoring Izuku by solely concentrating on his phone. She sat down by him, leaning against his shoulder and stared at Izuku. "Got free food from Sho." She chuckled as Katsuki snagged some of her fries without even looking up. "When did you talk to Todoroki? I thought you said you were going to the bathroom. Did you lie to me about that?" Izuku frowns and crosses his arms. "No, I walked past him eating by himself after I finished. Chill, dude." She had half a mind to push Katsuki away from her prize but let him enjoy the few fries he captured. "Why did you wind up in that class of extras? You're way better than them. Hell, you could replace Deku. He's worthless anyways." He remarks, raising his phone to show her, an affirmative grunt following soon after.

"You aren't going to defend me, Aki?" Izuku looked dejected with a little frown. "How am I supposed to defend you? I don't even have an answer to his question. To be truthful, Class B isn't that bad, Monoma is a weird little fuck but so far, no one is too horrible. Vlad is really caring, not my style. Kendo chopped the shit out of Monoma, knocking him out immediately and is a sweetheart. Which was awesome, cause it made him shut the fuck up. Uh, Tetsu is pretty cool! He can turn into steel. Juzo is sweet, I may have been a bit mean to him when we first met, gotta apologize later but oh! Pony is the cutest little bean ever and I want to hug and squeeze her and keep her safe and anyone who harms her will be burned to a crisp, I love her!" The first to meet her ramblings was Katsuki, never knowing that she favored cute things with how she carried herself, next came Izuku, having this knowledge but happy she felt comfortable saying it aloud.

Immediately deciphering what she said, usually being the one to do the same thing, Izuku pulled out the piece of paper that he scribbled on previously. "You said that this Tetsu person could turn into steel, do you know it's mechanics? Like how his skin can do that or if it's anything like Kirishima?" He pouted when she shook her head, not that interested in the research aspect of quirks like he was. "Sorry, bud. Also Kat, you look like I slapped you. Are you okay?" She stared at the gobsmacked face Katsuki was making, pinching his cheeks to maybe fix his visible confusion. "Since when did you like cute things? Thought you grew out of that years ago." Katsuki swats her hands away and refined his search to match this 'new' information. "Never grew out of it, just lost my plushies." She shrugged and went on to eat the lukewarm cheeseburger, giving up on keeping the fries to herself as both of them took some.

"Hates dresses but plays with dolls, you're fucking strange." Katsuki abruptly rose to his feet, having her lose her balance and land on her elbow, giving her a view under his shirt. She lightly traced her fingers over his abs, lifting his shirt more to show off his lean build with little droplets of sweat glistening on his creamy skin. Katsuki blushed at the gentle touch laid upon him, trailing down the arm to see her lifting his shirt up and that her entire face was uncovered as well, her expression was soft and curious, never thinking to look at this part of him until now. Most reminiscent of a kitten or puppy discovering something new and he loved it, the pure innocence this tiny action of hers held. The first thing that crossed his mind was to lean down and kiss her but once she caught on to his stare, she got up and went back to her food, this time being the one picking at it.

With a sly smirk and soft noise of clearing his throat, Izuku had gained their attention. Nothing like seeing his friends get along even if it were just silence, made him excited. "Would you like some fries, Kacchan? We kinda ate all of hers." He chose to make the reason for him leaving again to be something they all wanted. Getting a solemn nod from Katsuki, Izuku made his way to secure a spot in line and kept letting others in front of him to make sure he gave them enough time to talk. Catching on to what Izuku's plan was, Akira glared at Katsuki but it held no ill-intent, she couldn't figure out what to say to him nor did she know why she had decided to peek under his shirt like that. In a standstill, they both assumed a complacent spot beside one another, Katsuki's hand gently placed atop hers. "I want to invite you over for dinner tonight," he began in the quietest voice he could muster, but it was still gruff enough to be mildly intimidating. "I'll cook but could you do something for me?" Her eyes met his at the end of his statement, unlike him to actively hold enough courage to make a request. "Sure, what is it?" She found that he'd raised her hand and placed a bag in her palm, it was from a clothing store she'd never seen before with other bags inside of it from what she could see. "Wear this for me, please. And don't open it until you get home." He could tell she was already trying to guess what it could be and disobeying what he'd said for a second, she opened the bag, getting her eyes covered by him instantly. "No fair!" She complained, her curiosity exploding at this point. "I said wait." He pushed her face up and pointed to her food in a wordless command for her to finish eating.

Finding it asinine to continue this little feud without anything to gain, she followed his orders and went back to eating her food with her head on his shoulder. A thought crossed her mind and it made her laugh, taking the burger and slamming it against his mouth but he'd anticipated her attack and took a massive bite. His muffled gagging meant she'd secured a victory, remembering his aversion to pickles. "You regret that, don'tcha?" She smiles as he forced himself to swallow, not willing to spit it out as nothing was close enough for him to do so. "I hate you so much." He snatched her drink and put his hand on her face, keeping her at arm's length as he used it to cleanse his mouth of the taste. "I paid for that, c'mon Kacchan!" She nearly fell forward when he released her face, glaring at her like he'd kill her. " _Never_ call me that, Akira. You aren't a worthless, mindless follower like Deku, don't say things he does." She stilled at the venom laced words, nodding nervously and centered herself on the last scrap of food; her soda was left in his possession.

Her abrasive personality was always stifled by him, bringing out a more obedient and submissive side that he only got to see. His hand tenderly threaded through her tresses, the subtle crackling of the embers in her hair came to faintly nip at his skin, not hot enough to singe. Her hand met his free one, entwining their fingers under the table as she quietly ate. "I didn't mean to upset you." His voice gentle and sweet in her ear, having her tilt her head in his direction. "You really didn't. I've given up on fighting you, waste of my time." She mumbled and took back her drink, offering him some now that he didn't have it. "Keep it, I basically used it as shit mouthwash. Why do you drink that?" He pats her head lovingly, not aiming to get an answer from her but was pleasantly surprised once he had. "Cheap and I like the flavor."

“Why is it a waste of time to fight me? I like that you’re not scared to challenge me or anyone.” He was sourly reminded of the afternoon prior when she flicked his nose, chuckling softly. “Sometimes, I don’t understand what’s going through your mind. You seem to want to open up to me but when it comes time, you chicken out or just bottle it all up and toss it as hard as you can. I want to get more from you and know more than you’ll let on but I refuse to push harder than need be to get what you’re silently hoping to convey. Albeit, maybe I am giving up too easily. Who knows? I can never pinpoint what you aim to say to me or Izuku, so why leave it a guessing game? Rather drop it than rack my brain with possibilities and what if’s. You say that I'm nothing like Izuku, so why follow his way of thinking?” She clicked her tongue before getting up to put her tray away. He held out his hands in a pleading gesture with his forehead rested on the balls of his wrists, elbows propped on the table. The pleasing smell of salt wafted into his nose as Izuku waved a large fry in front of him. A swift snap of his jaw caught the fry and almost one of Izuku's fingers in the process. "Everything, okay?" He set down the fry basket and reached out to touch Katsuki's shoulder but retracted his hand, knowing that he would just make it worse if he did so.

Katsuki kept silent as he thought, drawing miscellaneous shapes on the table's surface in wait for Akira to return. He could actively engage in conversation with the teen across from him but he knew that all he wished to do was destroy him for existing in the first place. Now that feeling of bubbling rage was replaced by contempt as he balled his fists, that flashy new quirk that he'd been hiding all this time, undermining his superiority over him by hiding this. Knowing that after everything they'd been through, he now chose to show it off, letting himself be beat up and verbally abused for the span of years, when all he had to do was use his quirk to stand up for himself but he chose not to, like he was a glutton for the punish that Katsuki dealt. "How about instead of hiding out on the roof, you jump off of it?" Katsuki's tone was harsh as he slammed his fist against the table, startling Izuku. "W-What?" Izuku stuttered with a fry placed between his lips.

Cracking each knuckle with the simple flex of his hand forming a fist once more, his mouth twitched up into a sneer. "You heard me. Take a dive off the roof and don't use that bullshit stolen quirk you got. Thinking that you have some kind of authority because Akira has a soft spot for you and that you have the right to choose what we do. You mean nothing and you should never think you do. I absolutely will beat you and you won't know what hit you!" He slicked his nail across his throat and used his quirk to intimidate Izuku. "Kacchan, I never asked her to pick where we went, to undermine you or anything. She told me to choose, I never wanted to. I was going to let you guys do whatever you wanted because I didn't care to choose." He spoke honestly, scooting his chair back. "Sure I had a reason for choosing the mall this time, but it was mainly to appease you both. I wanted to stay home today and relax, knowing I wouldn't find much comfort being outside with everything. If you want me to go, I will. No point in staying if you aren't enjoying yourself, which is what I hoped we'd do." Izuku scratched the back of his neck, getting grabbed by his hair with a soft growl in his ear. "Sit." Akira pushed him back down in his seat. "Get over yourselves and eat before the fries get cold. I hate wasting food."

"But look, I'll apologize for making you come out here and having you choose where we go but you acted like a lackey. I just wanted you to enjoy something we did and maybe help you get over your aversion to being out with us. I gave you a choice, you could’ve backed down or stayed home but you joined us, you made that decision and stuck with it. You can't say that I dragged you out here and made you buy that shit and smile and laugh with Uraraka and gave you guys a little adventure together. That was all you and none of it would've happened if you stayed home, Izu. Don't tell me you regret it." She kissed his forehead and returned to her seat by Katsuki, who had his arms crossed. "N-No, I don't! I just felt like I was making things worse for you guys, having you fight and everything made me sad. I thought it was all my fault and I kept leaving to see if it was just me being there that caused it." Izuku twiddled his thumbs, blushing as Akira wiped the ketchup off the corner of his mouth. "You've done nothing wrong, you know that we've always had a rocky relationship." She licked her finger clean and winked at him, taking a fry.

The side eye that Katsuki gave Izuku stopped him from responding, going back to their shared fries as Akira smiled happily and fed Katsuki, relaxing the blonde. "Anyone know the time?" She mumbled, tapping the table for someone's phone and got her answer as Katsuki showed her his screen. "Why did this take almost four hours? What the fuck?" She halted the fry centimeters away from Katsuki's lips, having him take a small bite of it, not wanting to hurt her. "Maybe because we've been all over this fucking mall, now just settling down for real. Had to chase you, him and ditch the guards. You lost your mind and he had his little date thing with pink cheeks." Katsuki turned Akira's hand and pushed the fry into her mouth before she spoke. "I did have to chase you, so shut up." He snapped with a lazy smirk, setting his phone back in his jacket to free his hand. Izuku had more that he wanted to say but wasn't sure he should, knowing that just him speaking ignited something that never went his way and he'd rather accept the silence he was granted or forced into at this point.

While Izuku kept to himself, he put his head in his shirt becoming similar to a turtle with his arms reacted as well, he had nothing he could verbally say but with his body language he was completely clear. "Want me to walk you home now?" Akira softly said, hoping to coax him out of his cocoon. "N-No... I mean, yes, but you guys... I would like that." He again reached out towards Katsuki, aimed for Akira and smiled when his hand was taken, peeking out to see that in fact his hand wasn't taken by who he wished it would've been. "Need to rest up for an early morning, Deku?" Katsuki crushed his hand in his grip, getting a soft whimper from Izuku before Akira removed Katsuki's hand and slapped him. "Quit it! If he wants to go home, then he can. You didn't even want him here in the first place, now you suddenly don't want him to go? Make up your mind while I'm gone." She gently took Izuku's hand and helped him get up with his items in hand, giving him a soft hug as she smiled. "I'll drop you off then come back. Or, I could stay with you." She suggested. "Come back here to him, don't leave him alone." He whispered, putting Katsuki's feelings and needs over his own, as much as he would love to continue to hang out with Akira, he knew that his friend would be devastated without her.

Akira circled around behind Izuku and gently pushed him towards the exit to get him in a less pressuring environment, ruffling his hair after he stood on his own two feet. "Why can't I stay home with you? I don't want you to be alone. I think he can get home by himself." She had some pep in her step for a new reason, the thought of relaxing all day with her friend was more endearing than probably having to deal with the stressing way Katsuki carried himself. She saw that Izuku hadn't spoken up, following her stride closely as he muttered. She knew that breaking him out of this would be hard, so she instead looped her arm around his and led him back to his apartment safely. Passersby would have assumed they were a couple, Akira gently arranging Izuku's hair and cleaning stray petals out of the bush atop his head as he leaned against her, lost in thought. They looked so homely and docile together, this came with the territory of being friends for this long. No use in speaking up to deny the claims.

Once they were at Izuku's doormat, she nudged him over and over until his side was throbbing, getting him to look up at her and gather his surroundings. He swiftly apologizes for spacing out and frantically waves his hands in front of him, pausing when she intertwines their hands together. "You know I don't care about that, Izu. What's on your mind?" She brought him back to the stairwell and sat down, this time leaning on him as he composed himself enough to speak. "I-I have the feeling that no matter what I do, Kacchan will always try to one up me or berate me because of breathing. A-And... Then there's those moments where I know that he's hurting but his pride won't let him just explain it to us. I-It doesn't have to be me, hell, I know it wouldn't be to me, but even with you, he's so difficult and brash. I've been trying to be nice to him and comply like I always do b-but... Even when I do that, it offends him or something. I c-can't seem to do anything right by him. I try so hard to appease him but I don't get anywhere. It's like I'm running in circles and haven't figured out that there isn't an end goal. You know what? I'm gonna keep trying no matter what, because he's my friend and I know that if you give up on someone, nothing ever gets done! What do you say Akira?" Izuku hyped himself up throughout his little speech, glad she didn't have to say anything, she nodded. She hadn't really thought about it the way that Izuku explained, how they both go out of their ways to make Katsuki feel wanted and loved when all he does is throw it back in their faces.

"Intervention?" She quietly said, he began a jubilant laugh, one that was twisted and mocking, prolonged as if she told a joke. Within seconds his smile slipped, a grimace now defined his features, creating an image more disturbing than she'd even seen. Before she had the chance to say anything, he got up to go home and closed the door in her face, leaving her to wonder what had happened as she shuffled her way back to the mall. Izuku hadn't given her idea a thought, that sounded so unlike him and that face, the way he laughed, it was so wrong. Like he had stewed over it before and knew it would never work, but maybe he was doing it as an example of what Katsuki would've done if presented with the idea. She couldn't be sure but it disturbed her.

She leaned on the wall of the mall entrance, not moving forward as she now found herself lost in thought like Izuku was previously, the dead look in his eyes was similar to the facade she put on during class. It was like something snapped in him, as if they had pushed him too far or if he was doing it to freak her out, cause it was working. Katsuki had noticed her stop at the door and put his hand on her head once he came over to her. "You okay? You've been looking at the ground for a while." He knocked his finger under her chin to have her look anywhere aside from the pavement. "Worried about Izu but y'know, maybe I'm thinking too much on it." She softly sighed and looked at him, propping her face on his shoulder. "He gave me this really weird face. One I've never seen him make before and it's making me uncomfortable."

Katsuki gave her comment no mind and tousled her hair, not that he didn't care about her worries but more because he didn't care to hear about Izuku. Tired of every conversation they have, being centered around him. It was like he needed a breath of fresh air, knowing he would never truly get it. Now that that nerd was at his apartment, he had her all to himself and could say whatever he wanted maybe not exactly on this topic, because he had no idea what she meant by that. "Wanna get out of here? I've got your bags." He gave her the bag with a relaxed smile and held her hand, instead of leading her back to the table, he took her outside to get some fresh air. Katsuki then gave her the soda she'd purchased earlier, having the ice replenished to keep it cold for her. With their quirks, they had a tendency to get overheated from time to time, with Katsuki dumping freezing water over himself and Akira rubbing as much ice as she could find all over herself. "Thank you. And, when did you learn to cook?" Akira chuckled, seeing the little act of kindness and enjoyed her drink. "Been having to help my mom cook dinner, got good at it cause I kept cutting myself chopping up carrots or whatever she had me do." He would say that it was relaxing to him, it made him smile to know his mother wasn't doing everything by herself and that he could lighten her load even just by a little. Akira put her hand over his chest before he walked into the street, looking over her as she smiled. "In your head, Katsuki?" Akira squeezed his hand gently, not used to him doing the same thing that Izuku did from time to time. "Yeah. Just feels nice to help my mother, even if she's really strict sometimes." He waited for the walk signal and took her across the crosswalk, towards his house, almost sure his mother wouldn't be home yet.

Fiddling with his keys to choose the right one to unlock the door, gave Akira the time to appreciate how Katsuki lived, not a quaint apartment like Izuku and Inko lived in but a real house. A place that his family called home, that they lived in without fear, without wondering what that loud noise or strange smell came from or who. She laid her hand on the door frame and slid it down with her nails scraping off little paint chips, envy burned in her eyes, she balled a shaking fist, careful to not straight up punch Katsuki in the face when he pulled her inside. "Akira, now you're doing it. Still worried about that nerd?" He led her to his game room after he closed the front door, turning her around and threw his jacket over her face when he started on the number latch attached to the door's hinges. Akira felt like a coat rack but the surprise of having his jacket suddenly obscuring her vision made her smile, the next thing she knew, she was being pulled into the room with the jacket wrapped around her shoulders. She hadn't been able to answer his question but her jaw dropped when she saw how well organized this particular room was. There were video games and the respective consoles or devices next to them on several shelves and cabinets, a strict labeling system was in place, cartridges encased in glass along with original instruction manuals lamented as to not be damaged. Katsuki's eyes lit up at her expression, seeing her clutching his jacket sleeves, stuck completely speechless. She had never seen this many video games in one place aside from in stores, truthfully to her, it looked like he had his parents buy a store. He was so proud of his collection, everything was kept in mint condition, even the older consoles and games were still functioning perfectly. A few scratches on the discs but none were badly damaged, the ones he broke in a fit of rage were replaced by the money earned from chores.

Akira went over to the computer and touched the screen, never having one of her own but then felt Katsuki rub her back. "Wanna play somethin'? Your choice, Aki." He saw her immediate nod and though she wasn't versed in the way of playing games, any for that matter, this was the most excited she had gotten over an extracurricular activity. "Please teach me! I've never done any of this stuff." Akira's newfound excitement made Katsuki's heart race, the blood rushing to his cheeks did nothing to help him, turning quickly to find a game she could play without it being too hard. While Katsuki was distracted, Akira rifled through the bag of clothes he bought her, stealing it away to run to his room upstairs. Akira furrowed her brows at the selection, seeing that everything was in her size but the way the outfits were paired together gave her a headache, she mismatched a few items and began getting changed. Between the four outfits he chose, she tossed aside the skirt and dress, picking a pair of his sweatpants from his drawers to go with the black shirt and fuzzy socks he got her. Returning downstairs, she looked inside his game room as he set out a blanket and controller for her, patting the spot beside him without looking up to turn the game on. "What did you think of the stuff I bought?" He eventually looked up just as she closed the door, the blush he thought had left, doubled when he saw that she was in his sweatpants, riding low on her hips with a small gap showing off her midriff as she stretched out her stiff muscles. "Hated most of them. No dresses or skirts next time, very uncomfortable for me." Akira jumped when he brushed her hair out of her face, his hand sliding down to her neck, keeping her eyes locked on him, she too felt herself blushing.

"You wearing my clothes is way better than anything I bought you." His voice low as he whispered to her, the other arm around her waist as he planted a kiss to her cheek. "You're never gonna kiss me, huh?" She chuckled and poked his nose, slipping out from between him and the door, going back to the blanket laid out and sat down. "I didn't plan to, why? Do you want me to?" He positioned himself by her, taking the first person controller to his SNES, humming along to the Tetris Attack theme and let her try the tutorial with him. Then once she caught on to how the controls down, he turned it on to a real one on one match, beating her countless times, one time just to show off, he only used one hand. He chuckled softly when she really started getting the hang of it, making him play more seriously only to wind up still winning, sticking his tongue out at her and blew a raspberry. "You're being an ass!" She exclaimed and pushed him over, having him retaliate by pushing her over but he slipped on the scrunched up blanket, smacking her face against her stomach. She groaned softly and moved him off, rubbing his face in circles to show how stupid he was. "That went horribly..." He mumbled but was slurred by her hand sliding over his mouth for the fourth time, she was pleased by how he didn't do anything to her, flinching when he gripped her wrist, having had enough of it and flipped her on to the sofa behind him. Pressing her shoulders against the cushions, his knee between her legs, noticing a smile on her face. "Look, you're cute and all, but chill. Get back to the game." His nerves were getting to him as he was leaning down towards her face and gave her a gentle kiss, feeling her grip on his shirt boosted his confidence to deepen the kiss.

The game over tune played on the screen as her hands roamed over his chest, pulling his shirt off and leaning back to let her climb on his lap, the tension of today propelled their actions. He dug his fingers into her hips, apologizing between the onslaught of kiss he was receiving for hurting her but she dismissed this and clawed at the couch, thankfully her nails weren't long enough to damage anything. Her little whisper of his first name sent a rush of blood downwards, his thumb teased the hemline of her pants as she rocked her hips, eliciting a muffled moan from him with a swift movement, he helped her take her shirt off. He marveled at the simple black bra she wore, but as much as he was enjoying the view, his eyes wandered over to her shoulder. Diving back into the kiss by her slamming their lips together, he went back to the little apologies every chance they took to breathe. His hand traveled down into her pants, getting a suppressed moan to leave her with his excitement growing, he broke the kiss and focused on marking up her neck. Leaving little purple bruises in his wake, biting and kissing on the delicate skin all while getting her little moans, he gave special attention to her shoulder with loving kisses. She rocked her hips on his hand, gasping a bit louder when his finger slipped inside but it soon turned into whines and moans, feeling him move his finger slowly. "Katsuki..." She let out a breathless plea, resulting in him giving her what she wanted and moved his finger faster, she pulled on his hair as he went on to trail kisses down her chest. Marking her up in the same way, the hand that was on her waist took to getting her bra off, once the article was off, he began circling his tongue around her pert nipple.

A knock on the door had them still, Katsuki lifting his head up with a scowl. "What?!" He screamed at whoever was disturbing them, pissed that they were being interrupted and that Akira put her shirt back on. "That's no way to talk to your mother, boy! Dinner's ready, you've got five minutes to have your hands washed and be sitting at the table!" Mitsuki screamed back through the door, stomping off to set the plates with the two teens awkwardly situating themselves to get dressed and have the requirements met or risk being in trouble. Katsuki helped her fasten her bra and focused on his own clothes, knowing she could do the rest by herself but opened the door for her, rushing to the bathroom to wash their hands and be at the table, they hadn't had a chance to say anything to each other about what had just happened. Katsuki barely spoke to his family over dinner, his eyes locked on Akira as she sat across from him, no food reaching his mouth due to him not paying attention to his dinner, his utensils untouched. His mind was racing and he couldn't begin to be hungry with the images from before dancing around in his mind, biting his bottom lip while Akira ate like nothing happened. The hunger in his eyes fixated on solely her, he pushed his plate aside and snapped, grabbing more than Akira's attention. Mitsuki and Masaru turned to their son, Mitsuki enraged that he hadn't touched his food and his father confused why he snapped in the first place. Akira knew why he snapped but her bashful expression made him melt, he tilted his head gently towards the staircase, silently asking if she wanted to join him. "Eat first, crazy." Akira rolled her eyes and went back to her meal, waiting for him to start eating before smiling. Mitsuki looked at them both, not commenting on what she saw and hummed joyously as she held her husband's hand, telling him that she'd explain everything later and to just continue eating.

Katsuki's gaze was stuck on Akira, twitching to the edge of his seat from the way she licked her lips and tensed when he scraped his fork across his plate with her jumping at the sound, her chest followed, jiggling freely and even though the shirt she wore was black, he could clearly see what he was looking for. Sliding his thumb over his chin rather than using a napkin just as he cleaned his plate when he stood and took both of their dishes into the kitchen to rinse them off. The sly look he gave Akira had her nodding as she went upstairs to his room, he waved at his parents and thanked them for making dinner, telling them that they had to go to bed early because they had to go to school tomorrow. With that he took to his room, eager to lock the door behind him and smiled at her, laid out on his bed in nothing but her shirt.

He chuckled to himself and mumbled. "Time for dessert."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As some explanation, Akira has a split personality named Dawn. Not typical of personalities to harm the host when coming out but it depends on how hostile or how unwilling the host is to let go. Hence, why Akira struggled to keep everything together in hopes to not awaken Dawn again.


	3. Meshed Fragments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes staying up late can be fun but an early morning always sours the spirits.

The repeated ringing of Izuku's alarm woke the teen up, holding his hand up towards the ceiling as he looked over his finger, remembering back to his first day of school, the rush of excitement as well as the panic over expulsion from Aizawa. Clenching his hand into a fist as he pumped himself up for the day ahead, he jumped out of bed and began his morning workout, fine tuning his muscles and body to handle the quirk that was bestowed upon him. His mind centered on All Might's words and how he saw potential in him, his fear of disappointing him drove him farther and farther, over exceeding the regiment he set days prior. It was a quiet morning for him, waking up before his mother most times so she didn't have to provide him with his meals even though she was more than happy to do so. Relieving his aching body with a hot shower, he began to dwell on the things he had done since acquiring this quirk and all the hardships that came with it, the secret at the tip of his tongue, squirming through his brain at all times, he felt as though he was betraying his closest friends and the only family he had because of it. He couldn't open up to his own mother about this, looking at the tie he was working to put on in the mirror with his own way of doing it and smiled to himself once he thought it looked right.

Making his way downstairs to secure himself some breakfast, trapped in his anxieties of failure, he sat before a bowl of cooling oatmeal and half peeled orange, fiddling with his sleeve buttons to relax. He pondered over every single possibility and outcome that his mind could come up with, each one worse than the other, these weren't like the ones he had before, gradually bringing his mood down as he felt tears well up in his eyes. What broke him of his sorrow was the gentle hand resting on his back, and the calming, sweet voice of his mother. "Izuku, what's the matter?" Inko rubbed his back, having woken up a few minutes ago but felt heartbroken that her son was crying into his bowl of oatmeal. Izuku wiped his tears away and quickly eased his mother's worries by coming up with some type of excuse, resulting in him being just tired from everything that had been going on and that he had to hurry up so he could get to school. Inko gave him an uneasy smile but nodded and gave him a kiss on the forehead, still worried about her son but knew that this had been stressful for the both of them.

Back over at the Bakugo residence with Mitsuki acting as an alarm clock because they missed the original one, having slept through the one that was set. A soft groan sounded from Katsuki as he peeled Akira’s arm off his face, memories from the night before, flooded his mind, reminding him that it really happened and it wasn’t one of his fantasies. He gazed at her heavenly mocha skin, kissing her wrist while letting her have these few minutes to sleep. Admiring the mismatch tone on her body, a dusting of sugar and cinnamon freckles on her hands, chest and cheeks. There was a scar above her lip, one that he'd kissed over and over, alongside others lower on her body. A slow hand caresses her cheek in a caring stroke, brushing her hair out of her face before he rolled over to get a good view of the time, it was a quarter past eight and neither of them were even dressed. He lightly pecked her eyelids then gently shook her awake and was surprised at how cute her wide eyed expression was when she first woke up, the one she held was so innocent.

He was so pleased with himself he couldn't contain it but he kept his voice low, still gruff with sleep as he greeted her in a dorky way. "Mornin' my little matchstick." Being given a slight smile from her as she sat up to stretch, he took the chance to kiss along her spine, having her arch into the touch and quietly whimper. They had just under half an hour before they were late to school, giving him ample amounts of time to mark her up more. Feather light kisses lingering on her skin with his hot breath ghosting on her neck when he reached it, nipping on her lobe as his arms slithered around her waist and gently tugged her back on top of him. He smiled at how complaisant she was in his hold, she tilted her head back some with a sluggish movement for him to freshen the marks he left before. "Well good morning to you too." She whispers as she puts her hand in his hair, pulling him away from her neck and hums while patting his arms to get him to let go. As she scooted off his lap, she too looked at the time even with only five minutes passing, she had less time than he did.

A knock on the door alerted them that they had to hurry up. "I really have to go, Katsuki." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek, he would've loved it if it were on the lips but he wouldn't ask for it, just the sight he was getting now was enough for him. In a scramble she started gathering up her clothes to get dressed, she tossed his clothes back to him to help him, she needed to run back to the Midoriya apartment. Forgetting that she didn't have her school uniform, skipping breakfast completely as well as leaving her bra in his game room as it slipped her mind. Katsuki met his mother at the last step of the stairwell, after a much needed shower, toweling off his hair as he sat down for breakfast, engaged in the most awkward conversation he'd ever had with his parent, he shoveled the food in his mouth to get out of the house as fast as possible. Akira was racing across the street to get to her destination, rudely jumping out in front of others to not miss class; Izuku recalled the things his mother had done for him since he achieved his dream.

Just days after getting accepted into U.A. he had been working tirelessly on perfecting his hero costume design and each meticulous element of it, resulting in him falling asleep at his desk with his mother seeing the design and going out to get a jumpsuit for him. This jumpsuit was her way of showing that she supported him in his endeavors and shouldn't have given up on him all those years ago. He gave his mother a hug then due to lost time, he quickly ate his breakfast, sharing the other half of the last orange with her. Inko inquired about Akira's whereabouts, saying that she had washed everything in wait for her return. Izuku checked the clock on the wall, explaining that she was staying over Kacchan's house but that he was worried because she was going to be late.

Finishing up his breakfast in record time it seemed, Izuku gathered up the things he needed to go to school, his hand on the doorknob as someone started pounding on the apartment door to get in. Akira bumped into Izuku when he opened the door for her, she brushed past him and quickly shuffled through the clean clothes basket to get her fresh linen. Taking her bandages to wrap herself then sloppily put her uniform on, her buttons undone and belt loose. Inko greeted her and helped her get everything prepared, giving her the last apple in the bowl as a substitute for the breakfast she skipped. “Thanks mom! I really gotta go!” She rushed out the door after giving Inko a small hug, she ran back to catch up with Izuku on his way to school with the apple in hand. "A-Akira are you okay? You almost knocked me over earlier." Izuku took in how disheveled she was, quick to notice the marks on her neck and felt his cheeks heat up as he chose to address it. "What happened to you n-neck?" He softly asked, meeting her gaze as she smiled and gave him a mischievous wink to answer his second question. "I didn't have my uniform or bandages. I was rushing, sorry I thought you would've been gone by now.” She nervously replied, still in her own little world while staring up at the sky at the clouds as they floated past. “D-Did you have a nice time over Kacchan’s house?” He was genuinely curious about her time over there, so used to her being there when he woke up that he kind of missed her this morning. “You bet I did. The dinner his mom made was really good. I haven’t had lasagna in a while. Katsuki provided dessert." She chuckled and pet his head with a wide smile unlike one she has ever given him, she seemed extremely happy or at least content to Izuku. She left it at that and started eating her apple, humming to herself a chipper tune with a slight smile. The implications that Katsuki had provided dessert mixed with the wink she had given him a second ago, gave him a few thoughts of his own, analyzing the marks on her neck closer. Izuku dipped her collar lower to get a better look at it, although it was without her permission, she let him work through the plethora of unspoken questions. "Hell yeah I did." Katsuki chimed in from behind them, having overheard the last part of her statement and he smiled pridefully, watching her immediately blush.

Izuku looked between the two of them, small scratches on Katsuki's cheek with the same marks that Akira had on her neck, Katsuki didn't care at all if anyone saw or commented on them. He wore them without a second thought or embarrassment, stopping Akira and spun her around to face him as he fixed her outfit. Katsuki got down to tie her shoes, after he arranged her tie and buttoned her uniform shirt. "Can't have you looking messy, Aki." He glanced up at her through his eyelashes and smirked at how flustered she was from this gesture, loving how much of a reaction he got. Once he was done tying her shoes, she stepped back and ran to school without another word. Ignoring Izuku's existence for the rest of the walk, Katsuki kept himself occupied with the pictures on his phone and music blasting in his ears. Izuku scurried on to class at the grimace Katsuki gave, either he was being told to go away or that he was going to be obliterated by him, he wasn't taking any chances at this point.

Getting to class before either of them and leaning over on the doors to the classroom as she opened it, not thinking about her hair being a mess. Tossing the apple core in the trash before situating herself in her seat with bags under her eyes, her face planted on her desk comfortably tucked into her arms with the bell ringing just in time for her not to be late. Her classmates were all looking back at her, some concerned about her appearance and her demeanor with soft gossip floating around the class, she gave up on trying to follow what was being said. Using this time to finger comb her hair in a neater fashion and raise her collar slightly, now remembering that she hadn't covered up the hickeys that Katsuki had left but was too tired to care about what the other's opinions of her were. She was beating herself up over how she didn't say anything back to him, stuck in her own mind with everything that happened between them and what he had done moments ago.

Boldest of them all, Monoma seeing this as a chance to strike up a conversation with Akira, he began with a laugh, one that was haughty and annoying. "So, I see that you were fashionably late to class! I can't imagine why that would be." He saw how through she was when she lifted her head to look at him, nothing about her expression screamed that she wanted anything to do with him or the small talk that he was offering. The most she gave him was a lackluster shrug then went back to her cozy spot on her arms, staring at the floor which she found to be more interesting than him at this current moment. Seeing that he still hadn't left from in front of her desk, she looked up again to see his awaiting face, like he didn't know when to give up. "I slept in. Go away." She hoped that replying to him would make him leave but it seemed that giving him her answer was simply a trap to continue the conversation, being a seat behind him, she should have known that engaging him gave him the advantage in this situation. "I couldn't help but notice that you and that horrid Class 1-A student were very close. What's his name?" His choice of words dragged something primal out of her mouth as she straightened out to completely look at him but kept her hands to herself, subduing her anger to fuel her ignoring him. Only his harassment didn't end there, he ranted on and on about how terrible Class 1-A was like he had when they first met, feeling every ounce of her blood boil with sparks coming from her hands while she tried to still keep herself in check.

At her breaking point, she latched her hands around his neck in a loose grip, so close to just strangling him right then and there but she only did this to scare him out of the topic he chose. "Keep talking and see what happens, Monoma." Her tone was flat and drained, pushing him back into his chair. Monoma gently rubbed his neck, but before he got to carry on like she hadn't just threatened him, Kendo stepped in again and chopped him on the back of his neck. "I'm sorry he keeps acting like this towards you. He seems to have some type of vendetta towards Class 1-A and knowing that you have friends in that class, makes him target his ill-will towards you. I feel if I hadn't looked up from my books, you would've done more to make him be quiet." Kendo chuckled softly and let Monoma rest on his desk, gently bowing as she retreated back to her own desk. "Hey, thanks. I really appreciate that. What was your name again?" Akira looked back at her, seeing her laugh. "Kendo Itsuka. You're Akira Tak-..." She stopped mid sentence when she saw the hurt expression Akira was giving her, having her leave off the last part of her name. "I apologize again. Just Akira then?" A solemn nod was given by the other teen before Akira returned to her spot in her arms, now in a worse mood than before.

As it was just homeroom the students were allowed to converse among one another, Aizawa's class was doing just that. Denki and Mina struck up a conversation with Kirishima while Tokoyami, Jiro and Ojiro were talking. Iida comments on how Tokoyami desk sitting habit wasn't appropriate and he needed to stand up or sit at his desk. Completely ignoring the pointless request, Tokoyami carried on with his conversation as Iida kept trying to get Tokoyami to listen to him. Through the soft commotion they were causing and the conversation that Izuku, Ochaco and the seemingly defeated Iida were having, Katsuki and Kirishima were holding a very one-sided conversation of their own. Katsuki barely said anything, giving him a couple of nods and “uh-huh’s” as he really didn’t want to be talking to anyone in the first place. He was here to prove that he was better than everyone and graduate, no time to make friends or pussyfoot around. Soon as Kirishima started to realize that he should give Katsuki some space, he retreated back to Denki and Mina, finding more engagement from them. Happily talking among each other as they all had time before classes really started, Izuku was reading over the curriculum to get it all down in his head, seated behind Katsuki deep in concentration.

Moseying through classes with as much enthusiasm as they could, the class members that weren't well versed in academics struggled more than others, finding that most of the Pro Heroes that they idolized were their teachers. Mineta, Sero and Denki were more 'engaged' in Midnight's class, all for the wrong reasons, but less conscious in Present Mic's English class, confused by why he was so calm and boring. Relief set in at the announcement of lunch, students scrambling towards the cafeteria to escape class, Izuku's wandering eyes scoured for his friend but she was nowhere to be found. Concluding on his dialogue being limited with Katsuki, he gently tilted his head towards the blonde, sinking in his chair under the scrutinous gaze from crimson eyes and waved off his question, choosing to relocate for his own safety. The pressure rising within Izuku made him sick to his stomach, he just wished it could go back to how it used to be between the two of them. He just wanted to be able to talk to Katsuki without the threat of being burned to a crisp or having his skull crushed in his hands. Izuku found himself settled in by Ochaco and Iida, enthralled by first getting to officially meet the one and only, Lunch Rush.

When a tray was set down next to his, Izuku turned his head towards her, seeing the familiar mocha skin. "What's up, Izu? Is this another new friend of yours?" Akira sat beside him with a soft smile, prominent bags under her eyes. He gave her a gentle nod of the head, seeing as he wasn't necessarily in the mood to talk right now, normally he would engage her but something about today just felt off to him and it brought him down to a degree. Within his close friend circle, one only wanted to destroy him every chance he got and his other close friend was the only moderator he had to survive. "Tenya Iida, it is nice to meet a friend of Midoriya's." Iida outstretched his hand out to Akira, a formal greeting she wasn't expecting but gave him a handshake with a forced smile, remembering him from the entrance exam and that he was the one with the engines on his calves. The same memory led her to glance over at Ochaco. "Hey, I remember you from yesterday. Name is..." Akira chuckled as Ochaco went on to fill in the blank for her, "Ochaco Uraraka! Yours is?" In fact, they both hadn't really had the time to introduce one another, Akira took in a great deal of interest to the blue haired teen across from Izuku. "My name is Akira. Just Akira." She saw the way Iida's face skewed in confusion, there was immense amounts of pride in his family name, someone choosing to only go by their first name was unheard of to him. "Is that what you would like us to call you? We barely know you at all and you give us your first name immediately?" Iida pointed out as Izuku looked up at Akira. "Don't like my last name, so yeah. I go by my first name." She frowned with her elbows situated on the table as she ate, Iida quieted down still unsure of how to respond to this but chose to abide by her wishes. "Of course Akira." He gave a stern nod and went on to eat, mentally documenting how long it took him to finish his lunch.

Izuku crumpled the fabric of his pants within his grasp. "I-I want to... H-He... What are y-you having for lunch?" Izuku prompted Akira with an innocent question instead of the other ones on the tip of his tongue and hoped she wouldn't pry any farther, a sigh of relief sounded from him as she answered him. "Just some spicy noods with green onions." Her reply made him chuckle softly, he never understood why she enjoyed shortening out words or why that would always bring a smile to his face, it was just silly to him. "What type of n-noods?" He tried to copy her verbiage but found that when he said it, it became awkward rather than silly and lighthearted like when she did it. "Oh, uh? Soba. It's spicy soba with enoki mushrooms and green onions. Lunch Rush is really something, huh?" At the mention of the Pro Hero's name, Izuku's eyes sparkled with admiration and whimsy, much like before; his mouth was full of notes and facts and tidbits about the hero.

Akira was pleased that this brought a smile to his face, even if she didn't care to listen to it all the time but she made a mental exception for this, seeing how jubilant it always made him. As soon as Izuku saw the time, he hushed himself so he could eat his lunch and get back to class, waving goodbye to Akira and hugged her before leaving the cafeteria. Katsuki sent her a wave from across the room, coming closer to her as she gave him a little wave of her own, she threw away her tray. Avoiding Katsuki like Izuku was, while keeping her distance from him because she hadn’t had the time she needed to think. As she followed suit, she made sure she got back to her desk before Katsuki got to his. Seated in a teacherless classroom, Class 1-A chattered in wonderment of what they could possibly be doing here until All Might bursts in dramatically, making a comment of how he was coming in through the door like a regular civilian. Strutting in wearing his Silver Age costume, the students marvel over the vintage and refined suit. "I’ll be teaching Hero Training. This is a course where you learn the do's and don'ts of being a hero. In as many different ways as possible. Let's get started! Today we'll be doing-!" He began with a flourish of enthusiasm to excite the class, before finishing his statement. "Combat Training!" The notion sprung up a different kind of excitement within Katsuki, a more sinister thought crossed his mind, juxtaposed to Izuku who was filled with dread along with confusion.

"And you'll do that in these!" He gestures to panels that ejected from the wall, explaining that these were the full costumes that were based on the designs that the students sent in. Each panel was labelled with the numbers that they achieved on the Quirk Apprehension Test and then to meet him on Grounds B for the battle trial. When the students emerged from the tunnel dawning their costumes, Izuku ran into Ochaco just at the lip of the tunnel, seeing the skin tight black and pink suit, rising blush to his freckled face. "I guess, I should've specified the measurements, it wound up being form-fitting." Ochaco scratched the back of her head with a little smile, Izuku stuttering his way through his sentence of reassurance to say she looked great in the costume. Joining in the ranks of their classmates, Izuku situated himself beside someone in a full suit of armor, looking over to All Might who stood before them. With the eyes of a seasoned veterans passing over the young teens, All Might admired the costume choices they made. One in particular stuck out to All Might, Izuku's was patterned after his usual fashion, the mouth brace was like his smile and the bunny ear-esque design on his headgear was styled after his hair. Gaining a muffled laugh from their teacher, which was soon subdued by Iida's barrage of questions, alerting Izuku that it was in fact Iida in the armor beside him.

Pulling out a script he'd wrote in the break room with details on today's lesson, something that he wouldn't tell his students, his expertise was strictly combat oriented, becoming a teacher was both unorthodox to him but fulfilling because he got to show what he was good at and see the next generation of heroes blossom before his eyes. Quieting down the class to explain everything, he cleared his throat to begin. "This will be an indoor activity, a battle between villains and heroes where the heroes must stop the villains in their scheme to deploy nuclear bombs. But, if the villains either capture the heroes or the nuclear bomb explodes, the heroes lose. Everyone will be split off into teams of two by random." With each name submitted into a chance machine, once each team was selected, All Might paired them off and with a five minute window to gather or prepare themselves, the first team consisting of the heroes Izuku and Ochaco facing off the villains Katsuki and Iida. All Might ushered the other students off the grounds. "We'll be watching you all from a surveillance room, so do your best!"

Izuku took the chance to assess the situation at hand, knowing that this was something that he'd have to approach delicately, considering his relationship with Katsuki. Situating themselves by the nuclear bomb, Katsuki was fuming but this wasn't one fueled by rage, the feeling he held was of betrayal, to have a quirkless kid follow him around for years, become his friend over shared interests and take everything that was dished out without so much as a form of retaliation come then reveal a hidden after all these years. The manipulative behavior that displayed made him sick to his stomach, there was nothing worse than having someone lie straight to your face and then for it to be years and years of keeping up this lie, never once failing to remember where it began and when. That type of needless deception, he pounded his fist against a pillar as Iida spoke up. "Bakugo! What's the matter?" He kept himself close to the bomb he was meant to protect, but he was curious about the other teen, not knowing of the history between him and Izuku. "That nerd's quirk, that flashy new quirk." Katsuki growled out, the look present in the blonde eyes could be mistaken as revenge but it truly was hurt, to know that he wasn't trusted enough to know of Izuku's quirk or even that he felt that he had to lie this entire time.

"I have to admit, his quirk seems to be more destructive to himself than anything, but with the amount of power it carries makes me wonder how he survived this long." Iida chopped the air a bit before bringing his finger up to his chin, thinking of the probability of him using his quirk over and over, the extensive amount of damage he'd sustain over the course of years and more how he could possibly still be able to function properly with said damage. At the announcement of the start, Katsuki rushed ahead away from his partner Iida, to find the target of his rage. Just as Izuku and Ochaco entered the building, scouting out the building to find where they needed to go to stop the villains they were confronted by Katsuki and his assault aimed at his former childhood friend. Katsuki unleashed a controlled explosion towards him, having Izuku save Ochaco once more with half of his mask getting blown off in the process.

Panic and anticipation filled Izuku as he watched Katsuki's next move, knowing that he always swung with his right hand, giving him the chance to grab it and throw Katsuki over his shoulder. "I'm not gonna be the Deku who is worthless and useless anymore Kacchan! I'm going to be the Deku that can do anything!" Izuku screamed as Katsuki smacked his back against the floor with a pained gasp and scowled as he listened to Izuku's little speech. "Remember that book you burned up during middle school? I had notes of all the heroes I admired, including you in there. I've studied your actions and knew you were gonna throw a punch with your right hand like you always do." Izuku gave an uneasy smile as Katsuki stood up, pressing the earpiece to hear what Iida was contacting him about, but with his mind centered on getting Izuku to prove that it wasn’t just a fluke, and that he had been lying all this time. He instructed Iida to stay put and watch the core, without giving him a chance to respond, he cut it off. Izuku directed Ochaco to go find the bomb, knowing he'd be held up here. Agreeing as she didn't want to get in between their feud, she rushed ahead to complete the task at hand. Being more calculated than before to distract Izuku and throw him off guard. Katsuki began with a sweeping kick, his foot connecting with the wall and a thin line of capturing tape was wrapped around his ankle by Izuku, he made notice of the change in his attack plan. Coupled with his knowledge of how Katsuki moved and acted, he knew to dodge his next punch, an explosion accompanying it.

Landing on his feet then in a desperate sprint, he ran off to find somewhere to hide and collect a strategy plan, one that would help him clear the mission as well as not harm himself in the process. Navigating endless turns and hallways, Katsuki came to a halt whilst Izuku kept running. “Hey! Was it fun lying to me this whole time?! Just flaunting around that flashy quirk of yours, huh?! Try and get me with it, I’ll prove that I’m better than you!” He screamed down the halls, loud enough for Izuku to hear and look down as he understood that this was the real tear in their relationship. The years of bullying and abuse was manageable because Katsuki thought of him as nothing more than an insignificant speck of dirt, that he could never do anything less than ordinary. He was the grounds that others walked on, the type of commoner than heroes built their reputation upon through saving them. Izuku was _nothing_ before. Now, he had something that Katsuki prided himself on, something that if he had all along, he would have used to defend himself, should have used to avoid the torment he was put through. All he wanted to know was why he never used it, why he chose to keep it a secret for over a decade, what was so important about this quirk of his that made it worthy of years of abuse. Never able to do anything right, too clumsy for most of the things that Katsuki excelled in or simply horrible at the task and yet he still chose to help him when he fell in that river, making Katsuki furious.

Every other thought went through his mind as he blasted through doorways to find Izuku, the image of ripping his head off or just simply strangling him was more than enough for him. Izuku sat at the intersection of four halls, already certain that he was completely right about Katsuki's intentions. He avoided Ochaco and went after him without hesitation, his main target and focus was on him, but this fit well into the trail they were going through. The best thing that he could do is assist Ochaco from down here, knowing that he would have to face off with Katsuki at one point, he wouldn’t be able to join her at the core if he didn’t beat Katsuki somehow. Ochaco situated herself behind a pillar in wait of Izuku, as she watched Iida perform his theatrics to get into the role of a villain, she bursted out laughing, thinking Iida was adorable due to him taking this so seriously. Alerting Iida to her position and blowing her cover, so she decided to show herself as there was no point in hiding anymore. “I’ve studied what your quirk can do and because you can make objects float, I cleaned the floor so you can’t pull any tricks on me! I’ve stopped you in your tracks, hero!” Iida declared and began approaching her, as she contacted Izuku, telling him that she was discovered and her position. The roaring drum of his heartbeat filled his ears as he took into account how much time they had to win, refusing to lose anymore Izuku stood with blood humming in his veins and determination written on his face. A sound similar to clanking metal sounded from behind Izuku, “They’re loaded.” The inevitability of being found was less of a surprise to him and more like destiny, this was finally his chance to prove that he wasn’t just going to continue being his punching bag, that he was more than what Katsuki thought of him. He was going to be a hero that saved others like his idol, he only hoped that he could see and understand that. “Are you mocking me? Thinking that you can beat me without using that quirk of yours? How naive are you to underestimate me, Deku?” He latched his finger onto a pin attached to his grenadier braces and pulled it off to release an explosion that decimated the entire level that they were on, directed at Izuku as he braced himself for the impact.

Emerging from the smoke surrounding him, “Even if you use that stupid quirk on me,” Creeping towards Izuku who cowarded in the corner over his clearly deranged rival. “You’ll never be able to beat me.” In a desperate attempt to get in contact with Katsuki due to the rumble he felt, Iida was distracted enough for Ochaco to make her move. Charging towards the nuclear core as she pressed the pads of her fingers together while launching herself in the air to make herself float but just seconds before she could reach what she was aiming for, Iida picked up the core and ran it across the room. Izuku took to contacting his ally to know if she was able to do what they needed so he didn’t have to fight Katsuki. The warning of disqualification from All Might sounded through Katsuki's earpiece after the damage caused from the previous explosion and with the fact that he didn’t want to lose to Izuku. “What?! Alright fine! We’ll fight hand to hand combat then!” Throwing himself at Izuku for an aerial attack, just as Izuku slipped slightly on the crumbled ground beside him, he knew he wouldn’t have any time to dodge so instead he chose to counter the move, blocking the explosion infused punch that was directed at his face. Using the force of his propulsion Katsuki went right over Izuku's head, changing the directory of his movements mid-air with the first attack as a decoy, he blasted Izuku from behind and heard a pained cry from the younger teen. ”Here’s that famous right hook you’ll always talking about!” Noting the fact that Izuku knew his battle techniques, he smashed his grenadier into Izuku's arms harshly and then although enraged by the weak display he was being shown, he made a calculated maneuver to rotate himself with the force of his explosions whilst holding onto Izuku's arm to throw him onto his back like he had done to him before. “Remember what you are! And insignificant weakling!” Somewhat allowing Izuku to stand on his own as All Might contemplated ending the fight due to the other students finding this to be unbearable to watch, he let it carry on for Izuku's sake as he needed to get a better grasp on his new quirk. “You’ve been lying to me this entire time! What?! Did you think that you were so much better than me, that you were never going to show me what you can do?!” Katsuki stepped towards Izuku as he tried to debate whether or not to use his quirk knowing that it would hurt himself and Katsuki in the process.

“I know you’ve always been better than me! And that’s why, I wanna beat you! Because you’re amazing!” He screamed even though he was in pain with tears threatening to fall, he meant it and everything he did for him was out of pure friendship and care for Katsuki in their early years, he never did it to belittle him or make him feel like he was being pitied. All Izuku wanted to do was support him every chance he got. “You’re even stupider than you look, give me everything you’ve got!” Unleashing a battle cry of their own as Katsuki and Izuku both charged at one another, Katsuki was dead set on getting to see his quirk again while Izuku had other plans. “Uraraka now!” Calling out to her before All Might got the ability to signal the fight’s end and connected the full power of One for All upwards towards the ceiling instead of hitting Katsuki, blowing out each level to create a massive hole in each level above to give Ochaco leverage over Iida as she used her quirk to make the pillar she was holding float. Using her made up special move to launch debris at Iida, forcing him to brace for impact that never came, allowing Ochaco to reach the nuclear core much to his dismay. “Since I can’t handle the power of my quirk I improvised; I had to figure out a way to win and this was the only thing I could come up with…” Izuku quietly explained just at the last second as All Might exclaimed his team's victory, with an awestruck Katsuki standing frozen in place. He realized that no matter what different tricks he pulled out, Izuku would always find a way to predict them along with making him look like a fool in front of everyone, meaning that if they had no hindrance and went all out, he would still wind up losing to him. The hand placed on his shoulder ripped him from his thoughts as his entire build up was under attack, everything he worked for and strived for was being challenged by this new discovery, nothing made sense to him. “Know that as long as you’re willing to learn something from what has been done, winning and losing does not matter.” Being taken back to the viewing room where everyone else was gathered, All Might was quick to point out that Iida was the one who proved to him that he was focused and prepared, giving the students a chance to guess why he chose a villain and not the heroes since they won. Momo took the moment to answer for him. Stating that Iida was only one who was taking the entirety of the training seriously, keeping himself ready and steady no matter what was thrown at him and that Izuku, Ochaco and Katsuki all had different even minor flaws that prevented them from completing the mission properly.

Carrying on with the battle trial like nothing had just happened, All Might chose the next teams, the villains being Hagakure and Ojiro against Todoroki and Shoji. All Katsuki's mind came up with was question after question, no answers being brought due to the one who could give it to him being passed out from the attacks and damage he sustained during the battle trial. And realizations about how he wasn’t the best anymore that he would have to admit that he had faults and couldn’t do everything as he thought before. Focused on the next battle in a state of shock, as Shoji acted as reconnaissance to scout out where the villains were and Todoroki encased the entire building in ice quickly to stroll up to where Ojiro and Hagakure were without a care and captured the nuclear core with a gentle placement of his hand. Creating steam as he melted the ice from his surroundings once their victory was secured, he calmly made his way back to the viewing area as the other trials took place, after a long afternoon of competing against their fellow classmates, everyone was relieved at how jubilant All Might was compared to Aizawa and were pleased at his words of encouragement. Bidding the class farewell he went off to check on Izuku who was sleeping in the nurse’s office, Recovery Girl not able to heal him completely because of how bad it was and scolded All might for letting him be this reckless as she could not keep up with him nor did Izuku have enough energy to benefit from her quirk’s ability.

Sluggish through all of her classes, blissfully unaware of what transpired between her friends, Akira nodded off between lessons and missed half of what was being taught. It wasn’t her main focus at the time, she was lacking the will to give her teachers the time of day, almost breathing a sigh of excitement when classes were dismissed, leaving earlier than everyone else. Much around the same time as Katsuki had with Izuku whizzing past her like she had this morning, she didn’t stop him in his pursuit of Katsuki. “Kacchan!” Signalling Katsuki that he was behind him as the blonde acknowledged him, Izuku went on to tell him something about his quirk. “I haven’t been lying to you this entire time. I was given my quirk recently by someone else and I k-know it sounds far fetched but I’m telling you the truth. I want to be able to harness this as my own and one day maybe be able to stand on my own and beat you!” Izuku cursed at himself as he knew the last part would only turn his statement against him from Katsuki's perspective, hearing the growl that he let out made him want to retract everything he said but Katsuki wasn’t having any of it. “Come to rub it in face, huh? You think that I’ll give you something for the fact that you were able to beat me? Well, I won’t! While watching that ice guy I realized that what I was never going to be able to compare to him. Everything I did in the fight against you was reckless and stupid, I was even agreeing with the chick as she explained it! So, if you think for a second that’ll get me to accept what happened, you’re wrong! Enjoy that win Deku, because you’ll never get another! Got that?!” Katsuki turned on his heel with tears in his eyes from frustration and his damaged ego, walking back home as he wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “You’ll never beat me again, you bastard.” Compared to his fellow classmates from his old school, Katsuki was in a league of his own. Able to outshine everyone and ace whatever challenge he faced, no matter how difficult it was to some. Now, Katsuki is just slightly above average, compared to the rest when he was the cream of the crop back then. Katsuki has witnessed, first hand, that his new classmates can either be stronger than him, smarter than him or, in Izuku's case, both. Meanwhile, Akira was standing at the entrance of the building, “Big fish in a small pond…” She stated while staring at the arches that lead out to the forest area surrounding the school. Watching as All Might rushed past her to catch up with Katsuki to give him a lecture on growth and accomplishments, being brushed off by Katsuki. “Get off of me All Might. Cut the shit, I don’t need your help. I’ll surpass you one day and be a greater hero than you’ve ever been. ” Caught off guard by Katsuki's declaration, he released the teen to let him go back home.

Turning towards Izuku after overhearing his declaration to Katsuki about the secret he told him to keep, All Might sighed lightly before he began. “You told young Bakugo?” He gently scolded him, knowing that trusting a teen with a secret like this had to be difficult. “I’m sorry.” Izuku looked down, knowing what he did was against the rules that All Might set since he was given this quirk. “I haven’t even told my mom, but I felt like I had to tell him, I’m really sorry.” All Might knew that he wasn’t one to show off but now understood that his sense of sincerity and honesty was what made him tell Katsuki, even if he still considered him to be a friend, Izuku couldn’t bear to have him hate him like this. “Fortunately, young Bakugo didn’t seem to take it seriously, so I’ll let it slide this time. But don’t do it again, please think about what it means to have this power. If this secret gets out, there will be several, if not crowds of thousands trying to steal this quirk from you. Putting both you and those around you in danger, imagine the chaos this would cause. Do you understand?” All Might lectured him on the responsibility he had to show while this secret was still between them, startled by the fact that Akira laid her hand on Izuku's head. Unsure of all that she heard but made no move to know, instead bidding Izuku a farewell with a few words about staying safe. Izuku turned to her slowly, his shoulder a bit stiff from the sling he was wearing and smiled, glad to see one of his friends. “Can’t go home without you, Izu.” She quietly said as she watched All Might leave, holding Izuku's bags for him so they could head home. “How’d you break your arms?” She chuckled lightly as he followed along, walking backwards to keep her eyes on him, knowing that if he fell, he wouldn’t be able to pick himself back up. “I-I got into a fight with Kacchan… I couldn’t think of another way to get out of it. W-We were doing battle trials and I was the hero, he was the villain, so I-I had to figure out a way to help Uraraka so we could win. I punched through the ceiling to give her a distraction against Iida and it worked! I passed out after, so I missed everyone else’s fights but I know I can stand my ground against Kacchan now! I actually won, Aki! I won!” He cheered almost breaking his cast from beginning to congratulate himself, but she looked peeved more than jubilated.

Not because she was upset by the fact that he was now able to do this but because throughout the years they had known each other, the time she dedicated to helping him after he was tormented by Katsuki. “Was it all a waste of time?” She hissed out low enough for him not to hear but he saw her move her lips, frowning at what he read. “W-What was a waste of time?” Hearing him repeat what she thought she had said to herself made her snap her eyes to his face, he was standing still with the only arm he could move outstretched to her. He searched for what could have been wrong or what he had done wrong in her eyes, finding nothing as her jaw clenched from gritting her teeth. “Me helping you! If you could have done it yourself, why didn’t you? Why do you suddenly now have a quirk that is strong and unstable? When ten years ago, you were beaten up by Katsuki while defending another kid who was quirkless like you. If you could have fended for yourself like you suddenly can now, why the absolute fuck didn’t you?!” Her voice came out strained and harsh, the tips of her hair lit aflame as she backed away from him with tears biting at the corners of her eyes. Izuku was left speechless for once, he had never seen her show this much emotion towards any subject and this secret of his was what broke her. Even if he was sure she would break his arms again, he wrapped the only mobile arm around her in a gentle hug, petting her head as her hair signed his bandages. Wiping her tears away when she looked up at him, bringing a slight smile to his face as she moved to the side of him. The rest of the walk was in silence with Izuku holding her hand as she rested her head on his shoulder, the faint amount of pain was nothing if it made her feel better. Once they were at his apartment door, he lightly tapped her shoulder to get her to give him his keys but instead she opened the door for them both, not wanting to make him continuously use his arms so he could heal.

As soon as the door was opened she went to his room to get into something more comfortable, leaving his bag beside him as he had to kick the door closed. “Hey, wanna shower with me again?” She laughed softly as Izuku blushed and stuttered uncontrollably, “I-I mean, you- we could, but you and I-I? You’re my guest in all, and have the first say in what you wanna do as well as I-I’m not gonna make you do something that would make you uncomfortable. I-...” She put her hand on his cheek to make him be quiet, explaining that she was just joking so there wasn’t much tension in the air. “I’m not mad at you, Izuku. Hell, I didn’t even mean to yell at you. I guess I’m more curious than anything. I overheard you telling Kat that you were given this quirk. Was that true?” She held up his matching knitted Christmas sweater along with an oversized forest green button up cardigan, letting him choose what he wanted to put on. He tilted his head towards the cardigan and smiled as she draped it over him, shuddering in relief as the cool air of the fan reached the hairs on the back of his neck. “Y-Yeah. I never wanted to upset or lie to you two. You never said anything to me after the entrance exam, I thought you were okay with it? I-... That sounds stupid and this is r-really sudden. I’m sorry!” He halfway bowed his head but couldn’t help his smile as she blew a raspberry on her hand, earning a loud giggle from him as she continued to alleviate his worries. “It’s pretty chill, I was kinda pissed at first though. I don’t care too much now, just that knowing you can stand up for yourself made me happy. And thinking on it now, yelling at you doesn’t really display or indicate happiness.” She awkwardly rubbed her neck, gesturing to the couch so he could sit down, knowing that she wanted something to eat. “Y-You’re happy?” He blinked sheepishly while heading over to the couch to relax, a skip in her step as she went to make what she could for dinner.

She set out everything for their meal, she glanced back at Izuku, smiling at him. “You make that sound like such a foreign concept, Izuku. I may not display emotions as much as you, or anyone else really but I still have emotions. They’re just subdued. I may also get them mixed up sometimes. Example of earlier, me yelling at you when I was happy for you.” She sent a flicker of flame onto the gas stove, igniting it so she could cook. She chuckled lightly as she took to crafting a meal for them, using most of the leftovers to make portions large enough for the three of them to eat, not wanting Inko to have to cook when she got off of work. If she was really going to prove that she was serious about having Izuku and Inko as family, she felt she had to provide for them when they can’t or simply whenever she could. The homely nature of Inko’s love and Izuku's hint of overprotectiveness made her understand what it was like to have a caring family. One that loved her unconditionally and would go to the ends of the Earth to protect her. “Y-You were smiling this morning, that’s what people typically associate happiness with.” They blushed upon remembering why she was smiling, rather than bring that back up he continued. “However, there are different types of smiles, a forced one which you display most often shows that you’re uneasy or just outright nervous. There is another type of smile that may not indicate happiness, that one you give me when you haven’t slept much. It’s unhinged and crazed. I don’t find much comfort in that but your real smile is really cute!” He barely missed a beat, showcasing his intellect once he was distracted by something he found interest in, even if it was just burying his face in more hero notes. “As you may already know, when you yelled at me, that could’ve been perceived as us arguing. Which is why I didn’t say anything to you because you needed to cool off both physically and metaphorically. You tend to behave like Kacchan because you spent a lot of time with him, even though you were by my side almost as much. He tends to act out through rage, unlike you he knows that he’s doing it. You can’t help it. It’s nice to know you’re happy, Akira. The food is burning.” He pointed out without looking up from his papers, having her scramble to throw the pan in the sink, sidetracked by his clear speech and accuracy to pinpoint and explain his findings. She was used to him stuttering through his sentences, stumbling over his words in front of others that when he was speaking clearly it astonished her. She found herself nodded along to what he was saying, her being not focused on what was meant to be their dinner, hunched over the sink while running water over the charred remains. “I might have to order something...”

She nearly started banging her head against the counter but Izuku laid his hand on her forehead and as she looked up at him, he had a smile plastered on his face. “Want pizza?” He offered the idea and let her stew on it, he let out a quiet squeak when she picked him up and gently spun him around, laughing as he held on absolutely afraid that she was going to drop him. But when she carried him to the couch without so much as a struggle, he blushed heavily, not realizing how strong she really was. She stared down at him as he tried to cover his face, setting him down on the couch with a smile and took the spot beside him, lounging comfortably with her feet kicked up on the table. “What kinda pizza though. You know we don’t agree on toppings.” Since their dietary choices differed it made it difficult for them to come up with something they could eat without sacrificing the things they enjoyed, concluding on getting two pizzas so they had leftovers in case Inko wasn’t able to bring home anything tomorrow night. Holding the phone up to Izuku and laughing softly when he cowered away from it, she understood why he did it, hating to make phone calls herself due to the awkwardness it presented at times. Dialing the number saved into their home phone, she paced back and forth to calm herself while ordering the pizzas, tapping her nails against the armrest of the couch. A sigh of relief left her when the call ended, throwing the phone on the couch and stared at Izuku. “What are you working on?” Seeing him tear his eyes away from his notebook to view her all the while still writing down the last notes in his head, stopping to put his hands in his lap and smiled widely. “N-Nothing much, I studied Kacchan’s fighting habits and how he tried to change it up when I predicted his moves. What he did with his explosions was pretty clever, propelling himself in a way similar to flying. Do you think that you could do that? Have you ever tried?” Even with his victory against Katsuki, he still considered what he had done to be a defeat, not able to find another way to win without damaging himself in the process but he felt this was the first step to becoming a hero. The trial and error period, testing the waters to see what his upper limits were.

A knock on the door broke both of them from their thoughts, Akira thinking over the plausibility of using her flames to fly as she answered the door, yelping when she was pulled outside and the door was closed behind her. “Looky here at what I found. You seemed to have forgotten this, this morning.” Katsuki ended with a coquettish smirk accompanied by a wink as he twirled the strap around his finger, holding up the bags of weapons she bought and the clothes he got her. She snatched her belongings out of his hands, blushing at his shiteating grin, turning on her heel to put the items inside the apartment, making sure the bra was shoved to the bottom of the clothing bag. “You don’t just pull people outside their houses. Thought you were pissed off, Kit-Kat?” She scoffed lightly, ticked off by how he was acting, not unlike how he was typically around her but it still became annoying after some time. “Don’t be like that, you love it. Well, you weren’t complainin’ last night.” He clicked his tongue and pressed himself closer to her, trapping her between a wall and his body, she gave him an impish grin before nipping behind his ear eliciting a small groan from him. “Had no reason but you’re keeping me from food, don’t make me devour you.” She softly growled against his neck, feeling him grab her hand and place something in it, looking down at it made her smile at how dorky he was. “Remember we used to give each other these every Valentine’s day? I saw them in a corner store on my way home and wanted to get you some.” He had a pack of conversation hearts that he had gotten for himself, a wide smile made its way to their faces as they opened it, sitting down on the stairs to chat. “Probs would’ve complained if you were shit.” She remarked, digging into the bag of candy, her statement didn’t bode well for his confidence along with the fact that she had been avoiding him since this morning. He was almost sure she would have run once he came over to give her back her things but he had only one thing on his mind at the moment. “Why have you been passin’ by like I’m invisible?” He pinched a tiny heart between his fingers, written on the candy was ‘Miss You’ earning another little smile from her followed by a snort, shaking her head. “I needed time to think. I wasn’t doing it on purpose. Had to focus on the boringness of school and for the love of everything, if this annoying ass kid doesn’t fucking quit talking to me, I will wind up in jail.” She rolled her eyes and groaned loudly, but all she was doing was smiling as Katsuki kept using the hearts to talk to her, the next one saying ‘Do Good’. “What if I don’t want to?” She could not believe she was even responding to him being an idiot but he dug through the bag again to find another response but when he couldn’t he shrugged. “Here me out, if you go to jail, you won’t be able to talk to me anymore and I know I’m amazing to talk to.” She punched his arm and when he gasped, she threw a piece of candy into his mouth, stopping him from saying anything else to her for just a minute. “You’re cool and all but have you ever talked to sleep, much better than you’ll ever be.” She joked and leaned against his shoulder, finding comfort in how calm he was, even when before he was close to breaking Izuku beyond repair. 

She guessed something must have brought him back to his senses, what that was she had no idea but he had his eyes centered on her. His hand met hers as they intertwined fingers, he pecked her knuckles, enjoying the moment of silence. His cheeks flushed when she used the same method of talking, holding up the candy with ‘Kiss Me’ written on it. He tapped her chin up to look her in the eyes, the gentle scent of caramel wafted off him as his nerves got the better of him, he wasn’t entirely comfortable with public displays of affection. She stared at him but made no move to do anything, enjoying the scent coming off of him from the nitroglycerin on his brow, letting go of his hand as she chuckled softly. “You don’t have to, I’m not making you. Though, you made me want a different type of sweet.” She kissed his cheek before standing to put the candy back inside the apartment, signalling Izuku that he could have some if he wanted, because she knew she wasn’t going to finish it. Returning back to her seat beside Katsuki on the stairs to relax against him, not minding that he messed up her hair as he played in it. The soft chime of a text had Katsuki let out an exasperated sigh, getting up to answer the text and leaned on the wall. “The old hag wants me back home for dinner. Catch ya later, Aki.” He shot her a quick smile before answering the phone when his mother called, yelling at her while he jogged back home, scaring the pizza delivery girl as she scooted out of the way. “Hey, you! Is that for the Midoriya residence?” She gathered the attention of the young woman, she looked to be about her age as well but something stuck out to her. Although she couldn’t place what it was until she spoke. “Aki~!” Her sickeningly sweet voice cooed, dropping the pizzas into Akira’s arms and hugged her tightly from behind, the octave dropping lower as she whispered in her ear. “ _My_ Akira, you look so beautiful.” Toga’s possession over her was her way of showing that she was dear to her, that she adored her as a person, that she wanted to _become_ her. "I feel so much better when I'm with you..." She listened to her heartbeat, it was slower than she expected it to be, she thought she excited fear in her but Akira was more infatuated with Toga. Akira tried not to make it obvious but the blush that crept up on her cheeks only betrayed her, the scent of blood rushing to her face made Toga drag her tongue over the scar on Akira’s cheek, a soft noise of excitement left her as Akira recoiled from the feeling and glared at her. Akira’s heart jumped in her chest, staring into honey eyes with a hidden cunningness laying dormant, it had been a year since they last saw each other but their first encounter was still fresh in their minds.

“Toga? Are you a pizza delivery girl?” Her obliviousness made Toga giggle but she didn’t correct her, the innocence was so cute to her and all she did was nod, wrapping her arm around Akira’s waist. Getting lost in her own thoughts while embracing her friend closer. Toga matched the rise and fall of Akira’s chest while she breathed, getting that right at least but it wasn't enough. _None of this was ever enough._ Would cutting out Akira’s tongue make her talk like her? Having the same taste buds as her to learn what Akira liked if she attached her tongue to her own. She wanted her lungs to take in the same air Akira breathed in the same way she did. She looked at Akira’s turquoise eyes reaching up to touch near her eye socket, could she scoop them out with her fingers? To peel her face off and wear it. She wanted to be _her_. Her fingers dug into the fabric of Akira’s sweater as she thought about it more. The gentle touch from Akira snapped her out her thoughts, focusing her back on the present situation. Loosening her hold on the sweater while looking Akira dead in the eyes, her focus moving to her lips then back up as if asking for permission silently which Akira granted her by pressing their lips together as a way to test the waters. They were just exploring each other to see what this attraction meant, harmless experimentation to know if this was worth pursuing or no less than a crush. The taste of fresh pomegranates mingled with linger hints of candy, Toga nicked at her bottom lip to draw blood, making Akira shy away some as she licked it off. “I um…” She speaks softly like she’s making up her mind, unsure if she should address what just happened or leave it unspoken, her eyes fell upon what she was holding. “Thanks for the pizza.” She cleared her throat and looked around to make sure no one was near them, chuckling softly as Toga winked at her. “I hope you enjoy your food, you need your strength, darling~.” She bit her lip as she slipped past her, a forbidden seductive tone laced her last word but before Akira could address it, Toga had already run off from Izuku peeking out to see if Akira was still there. “A-Aki, who was that?” He didn’t get to see much of the individual running off because of the hoodie covering their head, making it nearly impossible to tell who they were from behind but Akira merely waved it off as she brought up the pizzas for them. “Just the wonderful person who delivered this.” She gently pushed past him to set the boxes down on the counter, looking down at where the bag of candy was and smirked when she saw it was on the table in front of the television.

She saw the worried expression that Izuku was giving her, moving closer to her without saying much until he was just beside her while watching her set out plates and prepared dinner for them. He lightly tapped her hand before she was able to set out their pizza, having her look over at him with a small smile but his blatant nervous smile gave her the notion that maybe she should explain why her lip was bleeding even if she had no idea how to say this properly. Knowing how Izuku would react if this was from Katsuki but how much of a bigger deal it would be if someone else did it, she settled on easing his worries while excluding the truth. More like beating around the bush as she rationalized it to herself, not one to generally give the full truth more often than not but he was also keeping something from her so she only felt it was fair that she could keep a few secrets herself. “You know that I have a tendency to bite at my lip, well I guess I went too far. Just a nervous tick like your mumbling, at least I think that’s cause you’re nervous.” While that was true for the most part, she shifted blame on herself instead of her friend as this was something that she did very often, much like her nail biting habit. “Do you want to really leave that open? I can help you clean it, i-in the bathroom where the first aid kit is. I wouldn’t mind.” He scratched behind his head averting his gaze to the refrigerator to collect a few drink selections just to not look her in the eyes, still unsure if he should have even offered his help, very educated on how capable she was but most things revolving around self-care and her own health were typically neglected more than he’d like to admit. “Nah, it’ll heal. It would be different if it was like a gash on my arm or something serious, this isn’t that big of a deal.” She shooed him off towards the couch and thanked him for helping her, getting everything ready for them to eat and made sure to put the pizza away for later. She carried the plates over to the table, pouring each of them a drink in handmade ceramic mugs with their names engraved on the bottom and painted their favorite colors, they smiled at each other over the wonderful memory of helping Inko make them then their joint effort of making one for her. Inko’s mug had a crooked handle and small fingerprints embedded within it, she would never let anything bad happen to it, it was one of the things that she held close to her and used every chance she got.

“Do I gotta worry about feeding you or anything? You can get your bandages dirty, right?” She stood near him with her eyebrows raised, not too keen on the thought or the question she asked, glancing down at him furiously shaking his head. “N-No! I can eat by myself, though thank you for the offer… Why would you even ask that?” He softly counters as she sits next to him, staring directly at him with a smirk. “I didn’t want you to get scolded again by Recovery Girl, she’s got a lot on her plate. But, if you don’t want my help, forget I said anything and eat. I’m way too tired for this.” She let out a quiet yawn and pats his head before starting on her meal, most of the time they ate in silence, the television was used as background noise to their hushed conversations throughout the evening, it was common for them both to have the house cleaned and be in bed by the time Inko arrived, lessening her workload to have her able to relax before turning in for the night but with Izuku's injuries the chores would be left up to Akira and while she paid no mind to how tired she felt. It did bother her how he was not able to help with his portion of the work, knowing that what was called for would be impossible because he needed both arms to put away the dishes after she dried them, she had his job of mopping the floors but switched out her dusting and vacuuming for the bathroom. Izuku met Akira in the hallway to usher her off to bed, finding her resting in the doorframe of the bathroom, finding her peaceful face to be adorable and carefully leading her to his room, giving her a spot on his bed without so much as a mumble from her.

He took to his chair by his desk after gathering all his notes from the front room and turned all the lights off along the way, luckily for him Akira had finished all the chores before passing out but he wished she took better care of herself without someone having to tell her what to do or her finding herself hurt by her irresponsibility towards her personal needs and self-care. Setting his books aside as he found this to be something worth more effort, he began researching different ways to break bad habits and potential remedies for insomnia. While documenting everything, he came across more troubling studies and effects of long-term insomniacs bringing him to glance over at her more than he was willing to admit. However, there were other things that were very helpful but he couldn’t exclude anything from his journal, this newest one would be dedicated simply to Akira, having to make sure he hid it well so she wouldn’t become too defensive over him knowing these things about her but soon he knew he would have to tell her. Just not now. He would continue to secretly help guide her to be better about her health and take most of the advice to heart himself, he was not the best at taking care of himself, this time his eyes landed on his arms as he softly tittered to himself. He had no control over what happened to his body, the raw power was far too much for him to handle now, with more training maybe he wouldn’t have so much backlash from his quirk. While watching her sleep, he realized that for one that he was being sort of creepy as well as she hadn’t taken care of her split lip and was getting little droplets of blood on his pillow, searching around for anything he could use to reduce the swelling or cover it up with. He got up to get an ice pack from the freezer and brought it back, while he would use it for his aching muscles, he wanted to make sure she didn’t have to deal with the irritation of this in the morning. Debating whether or not he should be doing this as he approached her and got on the bed, he lightly applied the ice pack to her lip whilst silently hoping he didn’t wake her up but relaxed more when she hadn’t made any movement of being startled by what he was doing.

Keeping it on her lip for a few minutes before removing it then put it on his own shoulder with a relieved sigh, just before he was able to retreat back to his computer, he felt her ever so lightly pressed her hand to his leg as she stretched. Frozen in place because at this point he was completely sure he had woken her up, he dared to look at her face but she was still peaceful and asleep, a little smile spread on his face. Abandoning his research for now as he should not have been using his arms to write in the first place, he hid the journal among his hero analysis and joined her in bed, ready for a good night’s sleep. He laid there staring up at the ceiling much like the start of his day, feeling her cuddle up to him only served to make his smile grow wider but soon the corners of his lips turned down as his mind focused solely on the events of today. The fight with Katsuki, half revealing the truth to his best friends and how hurt they both were by his lies and secrets. It made him sick to his stomach that he couldn’t just spill everything out to them, it was hard enough to use this quirk with all the repercussions that came with it but the secret he had to keep to top it off felt like too much at times. If only this wasn’t something that could cause a mass coming for him and All Might to have something this powerful at their disposal with the danger it posed to his family, he just couldn’t risk it no matter how much he wanted to make his friends believe him. Not only did he feel as though he was betraying them, he knew that they must have felt the same way about him, more Katsuki than Akira, she seemed to understand that he wasn’t just keeping it to himself for selfish gain or reasoning and even though she had no idea where his quirk came from, she wasn’t going to pressure him into answering or exposing where it came from. He again smiled as she put her head on his chest as if she knew he was thinking about her and wanted in the mental conversation, brushing her hair away from his mouth.

Out of habit, he pressed a little kiss to her forehead while rolling over to cuddle her close to his chest, making a mental comment on how she curled up like a kitten when she was content and even though she was taller than him, she had her head tucked under his chin which only served to make her look even cuter and small. His concerns were still in the corner of his mind, her strange sleeping habits, how she managed to go for days on end without needing so much as a nap or a meal and how on edge she became the less and less sleep she got, what created her excessive need to feel like she wasn’t being lied to or scout out others truths within every word spoken, the distrust she gave to those who she only just met. Things that he was so sure she never knew he noticed about her, he was so deeply integrated in her minute mannerisms that he could practically reflect them at a moments notice, much like how he did with Katsuki during their fight. While he was cast aside from their friendship for being the one without a quirk, the useless and weak party that was merely a straggler to their adventures, he took to analysing every single thing that made them who they were.

Where he thought he knew her, she changed soon after her parents passed away and he assumed it was her going through the stages of grief but she did not seem to cry or be upset by losing those who cared about her, she seemed to not even acknowledge what happened to her almost as if it hadn’t bothered her. He glanced down at her before springing up from the bed, sure he didn’t disturb her by putting a pillow in his place before returning to his computer, something about her was rubbing him the wrong way and he needed to know what it was. Studying how she processed emotions and her incorrect displays of said emotions, there were a few pieces that he had to put together before coming to a conclusion but this hypothesis was something he’d have to test out and gather more in depth results throughout her stay here. He felt as though he was using her as a lab rat to conduct secret experiments on, but maybe he could run certain things by her but in a way that she wouldn’t suspect it. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a cold breath hit the back of his neck, his hand flew to his mouth to silence the scream his mouth was formulating. _“Please come back to bed, Dori.”_ She mumbled so softly he could have swore he misheard her, but the nickname was unlike what he was used to, causing him to turn slowly toward her. It was such a childish thing that it made him smile uncontrollably and nod, gesturing over to his bed before joining her to help her sleep again. “Dawn?” He spoke lowly to not scare her as he knew about her, he was never given the chance to talk to her often and was unsure on what brought her out.

She stared at him all while messing up his already unruly hair, he hugged her close to him but his smile slipped when she answered him. _“You left me. I don't wanna be alone.”_ How her voice's trembling matched her body first gave him the impression that she was cold but that was impossible, finding his arm soaked in her tears he searched her eyes for a reason. All he found was pain and fear wrapped around the blank stare she had, tears falling like raindrops during a thunderstorm but she made no noise close to the thundering boom mother nature announces to make the tantrum known. Dawn’s silence evinced her fragility, what was trapped behind Akira’s cold demeanour was someone who knew nothing more than their shared agony, someone who only understood and was given pain from others around her. Upon the thought of being abandoned she fought to have what brought her comfort returned and Izuku couldn’t fathom all that she had been through, keeping himself with her as she silently cried even with him there for her. “I’m here, Dawn. I’m here.” He reassured her as it was all he could think to do, tearfully watching her fall asleep on him with a pleased little smile on her face and it took everything for him not to break down immediately. She was his friend and this was the first time he had ever seen her express anything like this to him, although it wasn’t Akira herself, he knew Dawn was someone he needed to hold close and dear to him.

He craned his neck as his door opened, biting back the laden emotions threatening to spill over and greeted his mother with a soft wave, pointing to Akira or Dawn, he wasn’t sure who it was in his arms to show she was sleeping. Inko couldn’t clearly see his face to notice his glassy eyes, giving a kind smile despite how tired she was, pleased to see her children cuddling together like they used to when they were in elementary school and quietly closed the door behind her before making her way to her room to set her bag down. Passing through the kitchen prior to checking on them, she saw the receipt from the pizza and put aside money to pay Akira back for what she had done knowing things had been hard for her, she felt it was only right to return the favor. Looking over the scorched sweater sleeve with a little sigh as she began gathering everything to fix it, more focused on completing it since it wouldn’t take much time that she forgot to eat, eager to have something warm for Izuku to wear the following morning as she didn’t want him catching a cold during the first days of school. She knew that she couldn’t always be there for them and this was one of the ways she showed her love, small gifts and home cooked meals every now and then, during the days she was off she tried to spoil them with family nights. She felt as though they were getting too old to want to spend time with her but she was proven wrong on many occasions, up to the point where either Akira or Izuku would offer to start up a game night and even if they end sometimes with minorly hurt emotions, they were still her favorite moments.

A gentle yawn escaped her as she looked over her handiwork bringing a smile to her face, the quiet knocking reminded her stomach that it was empty when the smell of pizza wafted into her room and her son peeked in. “Y-You didn’t eat, mom.” He whispered in case she was asleep, surprised that she wasn’t but joined her on her bed, presenting her the plate and milk while looking over at his sweater. “I had to fix it or you could’ve caught a cold, Izuku.” She explained her reasoning and accepted the food, setting it down to cup his cheek seeing that he was upset, catching the thawed ice pack on his shoulder and scrambled to get something to ease his pain. “It says take two since you’re a big boy.” She took out two Tylenol to give him and grabbed the milk so he could have something to drink with it, she didn’t know if she could handle it if he were to choke on her watch, the thought made her nearly faint. Watching him carefully to make sure he was completely okay before putting the bottle away, then waddled off to get another ice pack for him while putting the thawed one away and hurried back to him to replace it. “Mom, you need to eat. I promise I’m okay.” He had to focus her on her needs rather than his own, appreciative of her doting on him but she needed the energy for work tomorrow as well as he had to settle down for bed. They sat there having a quiet conversation about how their respective days went, most of the time was spent with Izuku reassuring his mother that he was perfectly okay and that he wasn’t in any danger at school and in fact he had friends that were pretty awesome and strong.

As much as it was a relief to hear he was making new friends, seeing him home with a new injury with him only being school for a few days only served to make her worry that he was being bullied by others and he was too scared to tell her. She knew she raised him to be as honest as he possibly could be, she was still so sure he wasn’t telling her something. She decided to take her own dishes back to the kitchen so Izuku didn’t have to use his arms anymore and ushered him off to bed with a kiss on the cheek, offering to tuck him in. Izuku nodded as he laid down, getting back in the proper position to get comfortable with Akira laid in his arms and they both smiled when Inko tucked him in, including Akira also. Inko gave both of them little kisses on the forehead before turning in for the night, closing the door quietly to not disturb them. Izuku yawned and rubbed his cheek on his pillow to feel the refreshing cool fabric on his skin as he settled in to join Akira in dreamland.


	4. Panic Medley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exploration can lead to shocking discoveries. 
> 
> (This will feature a first person POV switch back to third person POV.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I recently lost a family member. Because 2020 couldn't have gotten any _**worse**_.

Suddenly I was back in the alley before it all began, my friends were speaking to me but no sound escaped them, I was deafened by the fear raising on their features as they pointed behind me and ran. Leaving me alone and confused. I began to run like I tried many times before in these nightmares, aware of what was to come each time but nothing changed my fate, to join them in their freedom, to not have suffered like I did that day. All the while a villain crept up behind me and wrapped itself around my body, a gelatinous-like watery substance invading my body like it owned me when I went to scream, silencing my cry for help, my hand reached out to those who I called friends that were long gone. It enters cold and murky, I can still taste it, like a dirty river, foul and polluted. The incredible pressure compressed my chest, forcing my lungs to burn as if on fire. The sinking feeling of dread settled in my bones, I felt my brain fuzz with the onset of asphyxia. My lungs screaming for any source of air, my throat seared in agony with the rising pressure of trapped air. Screaming for a saviour to bring me back to life, save me but no one was around, no crowds, no heroes. It was only me. Trapped in the middle of broad daylight trashing and blasting and praying and flailing against my oppressor, unable to make the silent world around me see me writhing in pain. I struggled to stay afloat.

With my last ounce of energy, in a superhuman effort, I propelled myself towards the surface and broke through if only for a few seconds, greedily gulping up the humid spring air and then I’m engulfed again. My legs were tired, struggling to bring me closer to the world that I took advantage of, everything that I had said to others, things that I have done to others, this was my punishment. Drowning as a villain chose me to be a vessel it could hide in, because I was too weak to have those who cared for me the most stay by my side, instead I pushed them away. I sank faster and the panic had my heart hammering against my ribs, desperate for oxygen. But it was no use. The oxygen I had had moments earlier was spent and I was left with a headache, dizziness and a ringing in my ears like a cymbal crashing on the ground, repeatedly. Slowly, the commotion and chaotic sounds drowned out to a low hum, buzzing in my ears, gradually muting into silence, one with the darkness. Feeling myself losing a battle I had no chance of fighting, after a long while of suffering, a numbness spreading throughout my body, my vision blurring as my consciousness faded. All illusions of surviving were gone. Giving in to what I knew was my fate, all that I deserved. As the oxygen deprivation takes away my thoughts, I float within a void filled with moments, flashes of my life. The good. The bad. My regrets. My proudest accomplishments. All was displayed before me like a portrait.

As I was swept away from the world, that was all I had with me, all others would have of me. Remembrance of how I last treated them, no matter how good or bad. No one would miss me. I never let them care enough to do so, it was karma for not being brave enough to let people see the real me. This illusion is what they would cry over, all they would know of me until I was wiped from their heads. A cruel, prideful and stubborn individual who couldn’t care less about what others thought of me, how I was perceived. That was my legacy.

  


An ominous amount of weight pressed against him, startling Katsuki out of his abysmal nightmare. A hollow scream got caught in his throat as his hand gripped the skin tightly, a wheezing cough made his heavy breaths stutter, his cheeks were wet and his body was drenched in sweat. The sheets were twisted around his limbs, since he was thrashing in his sleep, causing him to throw them aside, not wanting to feel constricted and practically ripped his shirt from his trembling body. The remnants of his nightmare still clung to his mind, as if it were haunting him. Tormenting him. Katsuki buried his face into the pillow Akira had slept on, finding comfort in the toffee and strawberry scent still lingering on the fabric, curling up with his arms wrapped around the pillow like a lifeline. Which in some way, it was. As much as she found joy in messing with him, he adored all the stability she bestowed upon his cacophonous mind. The longer he kept his face close to his pillow, the more his heart ached for anyone’s company, for her company most of all, but it would seem that nothing but the stagnant loneliness could follow him. Maybe this was his curse, to push others away.

Rather than situate himself in a slump, he peeled himself out of bed, to turn the lights on with the pillow still glued to his chest as he steps in small circles to get the trembling to stop, quiet his racing mind with his eyes glancing over to his phone every now and again. He saw the time on his fourth, maybe fifth circling session and softly groaned to himself, he had several hours to blow before he was remotely close to being able to go to school. Because he knew he was not going to go back to bed, that avenue was destroyed and he wished he could sleep better like he used to, sure he would wake up randomly through a random sound or for absolutely no reason, but these nightmares were draining. Countless nights, he lost count by now but it had been a year since the incident and that was all his mind was plagued with. Over and over. There was no end in sight. The struggle of his newly found trauma, he had nothing he could center himself with to change the topic of his mind whilst he was alone. He found a sense of peace when he laid in bed with Akira, nothing bad happened within the walls of his subconscious when she was in the vicinity. And yet, she wasn’t here. He was stuck dealing with this alone, as always.

By now he was used to it, a gentle tear strolled down his cheek as he fell to the floor, pulling his knees to his chest and giving in to his weakness, he snatched his phone from his backpack. All he wanted was to have her respond, “No more than one text.” He told himself, the limits of his self-control fading in his desperation to have some contact with his friend, even if he didn’t know what she would consider their relationship now, he wasn’t going to pressure her into making that decision as much as he wanted them to be official. He stewed over what he was going to text, wasting more than thirty minutes rolling around on the floor and deleting what he considered to be dumb conversation starters.

Akira: Are you ever gonna send your message, firecracker? Been watching you try to say something for like ten minutes.

He felt embarrassed that she had seen him debate on what to say, even if she had no idea how long he had really been trying to formulate a good sentence and she was the first to speak. He sighed before replying.

Katsuki: No. Come over.

She chuckled and sent a picture of her and Izuku cuddling, showing him that she was trapped in this cozy situation, flipping him the bird with the widest smile she had ever given him.

Akira: Is your way of doing a booty call? Cause we have school in 3 hours.

He growled at the picture, not wanting to see Izuku's stupid face right now but he centered himself on her smile and how gorgeous it was. He almost burst out laughing at her assumption, but pressed his face to the pillow to muffle his giggles.

Katsuki: Hell no. I wanna see you but I guess the picture will have to do. Why are you up?

She laughed softly at his question, rather than reversing on him, she tried to get out of bed. Making sure that she didn’t wake Izuku up, writing a little note to tell him where she was going, putting it on his computer’s keyboard.

Akira: Took a nap and woke up. Wbu?

He sighed and though he valued honesty more than anything, he didn’t know whether or not to tell her the truth, this wasn’t something he liked to publicize to anyone really.

Katsuki: Same here, you know I’m a shitty sleeper.

It was technically the truth, they both recognized that sleep wasn’t their strong suits but more than ever had this become a problem for Katsuki, Akira was used to not being able to sleep through the night. As a matter of fact, she strived off of miniscule amounts of sleep.

Akira: Yeah, but you get cranky without much sleep. Like a toddler.

He scoffed at her mocking and went to reply, going to correct her little statement on his actions as much as he was smiling. He could say the same about her, but she was right about this. She was much better at dealing with sleep deprivation than he was, which was both worrisome and awesome. She would be great at night patrols or other late night hero work, for the life of him he could have swore, if she could, she would take naps in random places without a care.

Before he knew it, there was a tapping on his window, thinking it might have started raining, he didn’t pay it much attention but it became more rapid and uneven, unlike most rainstorms he had experienced with curiosity getting the better of him, he went up to the window just in time before a larger rock hit his window, that would have definitely shatter it. He opened his window and peeked out to see Akira with a handful of rocks in her hand. “What the fuck are you doing?” He opened his window completely when he saw her drop the rocks and jump up the side of the building, climbing expertly like she had mastered the skill. “You wanted me to come over, I had nothing better to do.” She was inches from his face, pushing him into his room so it didn’t look like she was breaking in and fell on top of him with a soft groan. She scrambled to close the window and turned to him, seeing the pillow close to his chest that she fell on. “I didn’t expect you to actually come over, why do you know how to climb up a building so fast?” He tossed the pillow on the bed to silence her question on why he was holding it and hugged her tightly, nuzzling his face in the crook of her neck, she hugged him while rubbing his back. “Just a random thing I learned. Don’t think much on it.” She led him to bed and he refused through actions, pulling her to the floor, his voice not able to express why he was afraid to go back.

She brushed her knuckles along his jaw in a caring stroke, repeating the action until he relaxed in her arms, she splayed her hand against his chest, feeling his heart beating rapidly under his skin. She tipped his head upwards to look at him, a mixture of fear and love were evident in his crimson eyes, bringing a gentle smile to her face. His hand found its way to her hip, keeping it there as they searched each other's faces for an invitation, once their lips connected Katsuki's trembling was replaced by a buzz of excitement. It was slow and soft, comforting in ways that words could never be. A loving gesture to ease both of them and once they pulled apart, a faint smile returned to his face. “Thank you.” His voice just above a whisper, kneading small circles into her hips with his thumb to release the built up tension, something she was thankful for. “For what? You owed me that kiss.” She joked softly and as much as she thought of it as a joke, she felt that she couldn’t get by without having had kissed him in the beginning of the day, now it was a craving for them. They couldn’t believe they waited this long to explore more than a friendship, but neither of them knew how the other felt at the time and last night proved they were devoted to each other.

“For coming over and for the kiss.” He swept her hair away from her eye, granting him a view of her beautiful face and even more enchanting smile, the way she licked her teeth like she was going to devour him and the soft growl of annoyance that sounded when he got lost in admiring her features. “Yeah, yeah...” She darted her eyes away with a rosy hue on her cheeks that he took upon himself to kiss, darkening it until she gently pushed his face away in embarrassment. His little laugh coupled with that breathtaking smile, made her eyes light up as she removed her hand from his face, planting another peck to his lips. “Why don’t you want to go to bed? I’m comfortable here but I know this isn’t somewhere you typically sleep.” She saw the way his face fell flat, a familiar crease formed on his brow as he sought an answer to tell her, her warm hands cupped his cheeks in a comforting manner. “The truth this time.” Once he knew he had been found out, he gave up on trying to formulate a random reason why he was laying on the floor cuddling up to a pillow soaked in his tears. “I had a nightmare. A really bad one and I wanted to have you here because you ward them away somehow and it makes me feel so stupid that I can’t get over this.” He nearly rambled on more like Izuku would but he calmed himself back to silence, not willing to spill more over the details of what the dream was about, she was more the reason that it haunted him so greatly. Knowing that he had almost killed people in his fear, killed her because he wasn’t strong enough to defend himself over something he had no control over.

“You can always try again, I’ll stay with you until morning if that’ll help you get some sleep.” She proposed and was met with a nod, carefully she helped him to his feet and led him to his bed, taking her time to not have him drag her back to the floor. Once they were resting beside each other, tucked under his covers within each other’s embrace, she put her arm around his waist and pressed her face against his muscular chest. “What about you? Plannin’ to sleep at all?” He pet her hair in slow strokes, his wild tiger cub, that’s what he would compare her to. Small and feisty but held more power than she could handle, power that she would have to grow into, she would become a mighty force to reckon with soon enough. “Got three hours of sleep, I’m good.” He grew concern at her statement, bringing his hand to her chin and raised her face to look at her. “Go back to sleep, you need it. Fucking lunatic.” He winced when she bit his finger and growled before returning to how she was positioned, comfortable listening to his heartbeat. “Not if you’re going to call me crazy, you asshole.” Her voice was sweet, making her smile known without him having to see her face, a quiet chuckle sounded from him with a shake of the head.

“Fine, fine. You’re not crazy. Evil then? My favorite tormentor? A sadist?” His fake questions were answered when she took it upon herself to bite his nipple, eliciting a muffled moan from him as he clasped his hand over his mouth. “All of them, baby boy. Maybe don’t tease someone when they’re in nipple biting distance from you.” Her threat while it made no rational sense, it made them both fall out laughing but they had to be quiet to not wake his parents. A challenge they were both willing to see through because the pure fury his mother carried when she was woken up earlier than she wanted, was a memory neither of them would forget. After their giggle fit died down, she pointed to the lights to make note it was way too bright for him to go to sleep and that she really loved being in the dark. “Why should I have to get up, nipple-biter? You’re my guest and you’re attacking me. It’s only fair you do it.” He yelped when she outright pushed him out of the bed and rolled over with her arms crossed, finding that the joke was not well received he shuffled over to turn the lights off then returned to her side.

He cuddled up to her as a way of apologizing, he kissed the nape of her neck, a soft spot he found in their time together. She dug her hand into his hair after making a soft sound, not really in the right headspace for this, nor did she physically want to. “Go to fucking bed, Katsuki Bakugo.” She scowled while scooting away from him, putting a pillow between them to drive home the fact she wanted none of that. “What did I do wrong? You were all cuddly a second ago, kissing on me and shit, now that I’m givin’ you a little something, you wanna get butthurt.” He sat up completely and grabbed her by her shirt, turning her around to have her focus on him as he scowled at her. “Really not in the mood. I was kissing on you because you were upset, I’m okay. You don’t need to comfort me.” She grabbed his wrist and pulled him down beside her, “So I suggest you get some rest, before I light you on fire.” She hissed into his ear with a small wisp of flame in her palm. “You’re so hot when you threaten me.” He whispered and gently pecked her on the lips, smiling as she poked his nose. “I’m always hot, don’t get it twisted.” She held his shirt out to him to make him get dressed, “Why aren’t you in the mood?” He almost didn’t want to know the answer, in case what he dreaded came true but she simply shrugged while avoiding eye contact. “I just don’t really care to do it again, at least not now. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it. I didn’t have a good day, sorry. And you aren’t the only one who can have bad dreams.” She played with his hair after he got his shirt on, not too bothered by her dreams or nightmares for that matter but sometimes it just rubbed her the wrong way.

“What was your dream about?” He knew this would backfire but he felt it only right to ask her about what was wrong, even when she would divert it back to him. Most times it was pointless to show compassion towards her because her walls were built up to be impenetrable and it would take an extensive amount of effort to break through one layer. “Darkness, just darkness.” This was as much as he expected from her, a vague answer but he could work with this more than her staying quiet, this was technically her opening up to him so he wasn’t going to let this chance go by. “Like the game or a void?” He tried to keep it lighthearted and was pleased that he earned a giggle from her followed by a shake of the head. “We should definitely play the game again but just a void, I was walking around in a void where no one could hear me and no matter how far I ran, nothing ever changed. There was no light or sound or people. Just an expanse of darkness and loneliness.” She pointed at him to signify that it was his turn to spill the beans, not wanting him to look into what her dream could have meant.

Even he didn’t want to admit his nightmare but through her honesty, he felt it was only right. “The slime villain incident.” He left it at that, his weakness laid out for her to make fun of as she always did, he was used to it by now. She enjoyed picking on him for the littlest things and he was sure this wouldn’t be an expectation but she gently stroked his cheek with a pained smile, moving his hand down to her left thigh and tapped her right shoulder. “Remember the scars?” Her voice wavered as a single tear rolled down her cheek, he let out a soft gasp when he connected the dots and hugged her tightly. He never saw how she got hurt, all he knew was she went to the hospital after he was saved by All Might, not how bad she had it. He understood her strengths but all the suffering she must have gone through because of him and that he didn’t have the chance to apologize to her for all he did.

What broke them of their thoughts was her stomach growling, alerting him that she was hungry and caused her to laugh. “I swear I ate. Since you aren’t going back to bed, how about games and breakfast?” She suggested to change the topic, not wanting to have to dwell on the bad memories any longer than she had to. “Works for me.” He leaned off of her and went to put on a pair of shorts, she crept up behind him and hugged him, pressing her face against his back. The action startled him some but he simply stiffened before relaxing enough to rest his hands a top hers, soon bringing her around him to kiss her knuckles. “Want me to cook for you?” He softly laughed at her little nod, still feeling defeated from yesterday when she burned her family dinner and didn’t want to wind up repeating that same mistake in his home.

A gentle touch was placed to her jaw, a hint of envy present in his eyes but there was no vocal explanation for his reasoning, a shiver running down her spine when his nail dragged along the scar just shy of her neck. She pursed her lips as she stared at his face, he was lost in his own mind with deafening thoughts racing around, not that there was anything else he could listen to with the silence surrounding them. He was envious of her scars, markings of the accomplishments and hardships she had been through blatantly displayed to everyone, whereas his quirk prevented this showcase. No matter what he did in his life, people would think that he were the most careful person and well-behaved child ever, no one knew that he was indeed the exact opposite of that because there was no proof. All his scars were mental and if only he were willing to tell everyone the things that plagued his mornings, afternoons and nights, every waking hour and restless night without sleep, he dealt with those invisible scars. The only one to share this knowledge, his pain was Akira.

She bore most of her scars on the outside but he knew her mind was more complex than anything. The information tucked away within the confines of her subconscious was greater than he could imagine, even with his history with her, he would never unlock all that she kept within herself. He was more than eager to know what had become of her after the tragedy that befell her family, what happened after she went to the hospital, all that had transpired between them and what her feelings were about it all but what he could do was wait. Katsuki casually wonders if he’ll ever learn the story behind each new scar, or if in his attempt to invoke a sense of patience would drive him to the brink of insanity. It would have to be worth it, because he couldn’t imagine what it would be like to not have her with him.

Quietly she said his name over and over to alert him that he was being both weird and creepy, he finally registered that his hand was resting on her neck. “Oh shit, I’m sorry.” He retracted his hand with a worried smile, worried that he could have hurt her more than he already had but his eyes wandered over to the door, remembering that she wanted something to eat as he offered his hand to her. She laid her hand on his and scrunched her nose up at his apology, baffled by him thinking he had to. “I was trying to get your attention cause you were spacing out, not that I minded your hand being on my neck, Kat.” She was also curious what was going on in his head to make him completely space out like that, mainly why it involved tracing over the scars on her face. “Is this where you tell me that you like being choked or some wacky shit like that? Cause I don’t take you for the kind to enjoy that. Knife play, yeah but choked? Nah. You’re too controlling to let someone have you helpless.” He was sure she would answer him immediately but she took time to contemplate his question before turning towards him slowly to flick his nose as she smiled widely. “Cook for me, you horrible boy. And you answered your own question.” Her sentence left him with more questions than answers but he couldn’t find it in him to know whether or not she was doing it on purpose and decided to continue with what she asked of him before.

Though he was getting a bit hungry, knowing how she liked to eat, he tried to formulate a meal plan whilst still making sure they could eat at the same time. Maybe he should just come to a compromise, being led down to the kitchen while making mental recipes to satisfy her. He locked his eyes on her hand, the fact he never took into account how well she kept her nails was a surprise in itself, he was almost too sure she didn’t care to sustain maintenance of them. When she situated herself on the counter, he brought her nails closer to examine them much to her confusion. She could see how intently he was staring at her hand then dropped it before running back upstairs to get something, making her look at her hand as if there was something on there that could have made him react like that. But her nails looked how they always did, short, rounded and boyish. She shrugged and started getting down all the things he needed to make their food but as she went to climb up on the other counter, he wrapped his arms around her waist and turned her around to sit on the island. “Katsuki!” Her yelp shifted into a silent hiss as she almost lost her balance but held onto his shirt, he let her relax before taking her hands to set them on her thighs. He held up two nail polish bottles, one was a sparkly maroon and the other was a matte black. “I was thinking both like an interchanging pattern but you chose.” He could care less if his mother yelled at him for using her nail polish, he thought it would look great on Akira’s bare nails.

She looked completely baffled by where his mind came up with this, never had she seen Mitsuki with nail polish on and it made her wonder even more if he knew what he was doing in the first place. “Both, I guess. I never wear this shit.” She couldn’t understand why he was so ecstatic about her choice, yet his face remained stoic whilst immediately getting started on decorating her nails with steady hands, he carried out his idea leaving a little surprise for her at the end. When he was finished with her nails, he gently blew on them to dry the polish gaining a faint blush on her face but she stayed quiet to watch him, knowing now that he’s had practice with this. She looked at her hands afterwards and shook her head at the hearts on her middle fingers, flipping him the bird and earned a soft chuckle from him. “Hey if you wanna get vengeance on me for painting my nails, then here you go.” He offered his hands but she as much as she thought it would be funny to mess up his nails, she waved it off as she had no real idea of how to paint his nails as perfectly as he did, opting to just continue blowing on her own nails so he could make their food. “Does your mom ask you for help with that?” His small nod gave her all she needed, the rest of the time was spent quietly with him focusing on breakfast and she carefully made sure she didn’t get the paint everywhere. “I thought I would hate the glitter but it’s tolerable. It reflects the light nicely.” She hoped to start up a conversation but he merely gave her a thumbs up while keeping his back to her, making sure he didn’t overcook anything.

She jumped off the counter and went to him, leaning over to see his face as he wasn’t paying attention to her but as his eyes shifted to her position he saw how glorious her smile was, it was the softest she had ever looked with the dim lighting casting shadows against her jawline and his heart almost stopped as she tied her hair back. She laid her head against his arm, feather light to not disturb his cooking but he absolutely was distracted by how charming this little action was, as much as it was uncommon for her, this was such a relief. She busied herself with his scent, the delicious medley of aromas perfumed the air sweet, rich and sticky caramel twirled around lusciously nonpareil subtly enhanced by a pungent kick of cayenne pepper as he sprinkled it on their eggs.

As she looked up to see if he was looking at her, his eyes darted back to the pan before turning around to rinse off the fresh spinach and adding it in a separate pan to sauté. She headed over to the refrigerator to get out tortilla wraps and presented it to him, only to get the most confused face he had ever given. “You want this in a burrito?” He scoffed and tossed the spinach in the pan with the eggs, forgoing his plan of omelettes and scrambled them for an easier way of eating, less messy and somewhat smarter than having to use a lot of dishes. He took a tortilla out and tossed it in the microwave to soften them up, he didn’t want to reroll the tortilla if it broke and ushered her off to his game room until he was done in the kitchen.

As much as he loved having her in there, she was a distraction in the best way. He revelled in her company with his heartstrings being tugged in whatever direction her smile dictated, when they were younger they joked about what would become of their friendship making silly promises of if they were both single in thirty years they would marry each other or having emergency codes to get out of awkward dates with conversations over ice cream soon after. Now he was treating her to a homemade breakfast and able to be so close to her without her getting defensive as usual, he felt so much relief in this situation of her willingness to be open with him. In fact, he didn’t want to waste more time in his mind and get back to her, dividing the contents of the pan in half to give them both the same amount before starting to roll her tortilla like a professional and plating it with ease. He worked at such a pace that rivaled cooking competitions, working on the bacon and the toast at the same time as he cut up the fresh passion fruit to blend it together with the lemonade he made the night prior.

As the toaster dings, he snatched the pieces up along with a spoon from the drawers, grabbing down a mason jar filled with mango habanero jam to dress the toast, just in time to plate both the toast and bacon, careful to remember to shut off the stove and put the dirty dishes in the sink. Moving on to put a few ice cubes in each glass, next adding a dish on the side, filled with hot sauce. He searched through the lower cabinets for the pizza pan, using it as a makeshift tray to deliver their food to his game room, noticing that the door was ajar only made his job easier as he nudged it fully open with his hip. “Order up, nipple-biter.” He joked softly as he tapped the door close with his heel, her chuckling at his joke gave him some relief as he took in her determined expression as she worked on speeding through the levels of Tetris Attack, something he had done years ago. He set the makeshift tray down and when she paused, she made a comment on how genius it was as he sat down. “Grab a controller, I’ll destroy you this time.” She set the controller out to him and smiled when he didn’t object, not that he would in the first place but he would have much rather her decide to eat before challenging him to a game.

“Flambé.” Was all she decided to say to him, leaving him in the dark about the motivation of her conversation, a complete guessing game for the meaning even with his culinary knowledge, he couldn’t be sure if that is what she was referring to. “Stop being cryptid, you crazy woman.” He scoffed more in confusion than irritation, watching her roll her eyes and tilt her head in his direction. She nearly left him in the dark out of the joy of knowing he was completely confused, but answered him anyways. “Quirk name, dumbass.” Her comment was snide, a softness surrounding her tone but he seemed to not catch it as he sneered towards her. “What was I supposed to think, you want me to creme brulee up some fucking bananas or some shit? You gave me nothing! You don’t get to call me a dumbass!” His voice was low as he never truly aimed to yell at her, she touched his forearm briefly as she wasn’t going to combat him on this and simply nodded in his direction, curious to hear his opinion on her choice as it mattered so much to her. He pressed his fingers to the crease on his forehead, seeing as she was being more genuine than she let on, easy to mock him even with her wishes smothered. “Flambé is cooking with alcohol, what does your quirk do?” He crossed his arms while giving her just enough of his attention to have it seem as though he could care less about this conversation but he was more interested in this than playing video games with her.

“It’s a combination of my mother’s quirk and my father’s, I produce diethyl ether from my bones and through that I can ignite it like your quirk. It’s an ethanol based liquid, that’s why I was thinking that flambé would work. Just that, I can control other people’s fire as well.” To him she had the same irritating speech pattern as Izuku when she explained her quirk but taking that information, it left him with one hypothesis that he wanted to test out. “Think you can handle my explosions?” He knew that could have been phrased better, especially with the face she gave that slapped him stupid, she giggled loudly at his question, nodding between the loud snort she made which caused him to smirk at how adorable she was being. “After we eat, Katsu. Then you can explode.” She teased as she took her plate to set it on her lap, leaning against the couch as she lazily eyed Katsuki from behind, choosing not to react to him glaring at her as she situated herself comfortably to eat the burrito Katsuki so gratefully made for her and kicked the controller toward herself to continue on with her game. “I like it. Go for it.” Katsuki gave a soft nod as he picked up the other controller to have her set up a game for them both, knowing she had become too cocky in her skills and that he needed to knock her down a peg.

“Look, I’m gonna be honest with you here when I say this. I went through the bag of stuff you bought. Why were there so many weapons in it? Training for something?” Hearing what he said made her choke on the bite she took, beating her chest to get it down in a hard swallow, she swiveled to view him as he kept his eyes locked on the screen before him. Her mind formulated reasons why she would have all of those weapons and better yet, a good way to explain herself to him without him knowing fully what she was going through when she wasn’t either crashing at his house or Midoriya’s apartment. He had no right snooping around in her belongings, she aimed to say but that would only make it more suspicious. She wanted to tell him that it was for protection but with how he treated her without the threat of danger being stacked onto that, she would hate to be smothered by him trying to fight off the things she felt the need to carry weapons around for. There was one reason that would make sense, that she could tell without having to feel guilty because it was true and that was her adoration for kung fu and action movies. “Deadpool.” She blurted out and tried to gauge his reaction to what had just been said but he simply nodded, more focused on the game and his breakfast to say more.

It brought a sense of relief to her, that he settled for that answer instead of prying more. Feeling bored of the game she chose, Katsuki cracked his knuckles and neck to loosen his stiff joints and instead took to setting up a trial game of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon to give her a gist of how the mechanics worked. Giving her a few chances to feel superior in her talents before destroying her in all three rounds without taking even a single point of damage, seeing her sour pout as she went on to eat some of her breakfast between her defeats. This only made her more determined to beat him in even just one round of the game, they had hours together and she was planning to spend it having as much fun as she could before they were stuck in separate classes with people they both disliked in some aspects. Forgoing her need to eat as she never felt hungry most days, he was more than willing to keep up with the game because it made him smile to see how hard she was trying to beat him.

He snapped to gather her attention with her eyes following his finger as he pointed down, she smirked as his finger landed on the rim of her plate with her half eaten breakfast as a way to silently tell her to take care of herself and eat. He did this more times than she could count. It was always extremely subtle. Never too invasive, like forcing her to eat by yelling at her to take care of herself. It was a gentle reminder, unlike how he acted towards others. Loud, arrogant and rambunctious. This was his way of being caring, simply quiet and attentive. Maybe he had nothing on his mind and that was all he had been thinking about, making sure that not only was he fed and content, but that he was capable of doing the same for her.

He would even tease her by choosing different characters that he didn’t practice with all the time since his main was Scorpio, “Here, Akira lemme give you a handicap. I’ll play this guy, his name is Noob and he’s the worst guy in Mortal Kombat, it _**should**_ give you an advantage to beat me.” He tries to play it off as him being generous when he has this air of smugness similar to that of the knife cat meme, leading to once Akira is defeated by the character, her almost strangling Katsuki. Seeing her hands encircling his neck caused him to react instinctively with the nitroglycerin igniting in his hand and blast her in the face when he reached out to stop her as a fear response to asphyxia, his hands trembling as he went to apologize but she just laughed with a hint of singe in her hair but otherwise, she was completely fine. This wasn’t the way that he wanted to test out his hypothesis but it does give him an answer, unfortunately her reaction was concerning to him, she had no reaction to the pain. His eyes widened as he remembered the conversation she had with Izuku after their hospital visit, opting to thread his fingers through her hair unsure if he would need to say more to her.

She winked at him and picked back up her controller, staying silent after what had transpired because there wasn’t much to say from either of them, occasionally she would see him glance over at her to see if she was okay and even though he was frazzled by the fact that he was capable enough to hurt her, he held an odd sense of relief that she was perfectly fine. Regardless if he was freaked out or not, he never missed a beat in keeping up his winning streak in game and even went on to cheer her on when she finally earned a K.O. in one round without him going easy on her, she wouldn’t have wanted to win like that anyways. Once she finally won a whole round against him, she joined in with the announcer ‘FINISH HIM’ and cackled loudly after watching Katsuki scramble to catch her thrown controller in triumph. To spare his gaming systems components, he turned everything off and let her relax over a cooking show he frequented when he couldn’t sleep.

His eyes made their way to her as he reached down for his glass of passion fruit lemonade, only for it to not be there with the rim pressed against her plump lips as she lazily took sip after sip, her Adam’s apple bobbing with every swallow. It was as if she had run out of her own drink, no, she simply wasn’t paying attention to where she grabbed he told himself but the instant her eyes darted his way, he knew she was doing it intentionally. A deliberate mistake that was aimed to only fluster him and it was working better than she had expected it to, he centered his attention on the TV so he could pretend that this show held his interest with his face turning all shades of red. What snapped him out of his thoughts was a knock on the door, this time without any form of permission his mother entered the room and pressed her finger to her lips, Mitsuki’s brain hadn’t registered that Akira was there but quickly took a double take into the room. “Who the hell told you that you could have company over? How the hell did she even get into my house?!” Mitsuki waved at Akira as Katsuki got up to combat his mother’s attitude and explain everything to her, only for him to get slapped in the back of the head for his tone.

“It’s close to school time, shower you stink! Akira, go home we wouldn’t want a repeat of yesterday.” Mitsuki went from yelling at her son to soon a softer tone when addressing Akira, watching her shovel the rest of her breakfast into her mouth before nodding as she bid Katsuki a farewell and headed for the door. “Talk to you later, Katsuki!” Akira waited for him to reply but he simply smirked at her and begrudgingly made his way upstairs to take a shower like his mother instructed, she made her exit and closed the door behind her quietly to not disturb anymore of the peace, knowing for a fact that he freaking Katsuki out coupled with the sounds of his explosion must have been the reason Mitsuki woke up in the first place. That and she hadn’t noticed how long they had been playing games and watching TV, it was close enough for them to get ready for school, starting on her walk back to Midoriya’s apartment taking many different shortcuts in the early dawn, basking in the slight chill that ran through her bones from the spring air.

Akira went to slick her hair back to get it out of her face from the breeze, lowering her hand to view her nails with a fond smile at the decorated keratin as she touched the wall of the apartment building, choosing to use the stairs since it was less suspicious than scaling the building and climbing in Izuku's window. As she knew that it was much easier to do in Katsuki's neighborhood because he would actually let her in, Izuku would question everything and potentially even scream if she suddenly jumped through his window, Katsuki had come to understand that most things she did was better left unanswered, though he was curious and half the time worried about her. Without so much as an admission to his feelings on the matter, arriving at the door with the softest sigh before unlocking it with the keys Inko had copied for both her and Izuku.

Pushing the door open to sneak inside then closing it as silently as possible, kicking her shoes off to put on her slippers and hang up her jacket, she tiptoed back to their shared bedroom since no one was out of bed yet. All the while, Izuku was seated at his computer, detailing a few notes that he decided to look past last night due to Dawn wanting him to lay down with her, with his headphones in, he didn’t hear Akira enter his room but he nearly screamed when she kissed his freckled cheek. Izuku snatched the earbuds out to address her, quickly grabbing up the note she left and pointed to it incessantly like this was an okay thing to do excluding any utterance of words and furrowed his eyebrows. “I’m sorry?” Akira stepped aside to get her school uniform from his closet, they had split it off to have enough room for their clothing, however Izuku took up three-fourths of the closet space since he actually had more clothing than her. “You know how alarming it is to wake up holding a pillow rather than my best friend? Especially since Dawn asked me to come to bed and soaked my shirt with her tears from how distraught she was over being alone. All you have to say is you’re sorry?” It had seemed like she struck a nerve in Izuku but she gave a slight tilt of the head in confusion at the name he mentioned. “Dawn?” In the purest moment of realization, his brows rose as his face took a softer expression to replace his minor annoyance over her blatant disregard for his feelings and set the note aside, in case she wanted to use it again but stood up to place his hand on her uninjured shoulder, he made sure to memorize which one it was to not harm her.

Akira glanced over at him whilst unbuttoning her blazer and undershirt, taking a second to direct her attention his way. “What?” Her voice was stricken with annoyance, not at him but at something else, moreso someone else and carefully maneuvered her arm from his touch to get dressed, sticking true to Mitsuki’s statement to not have a repeat of what happened yesterday. “Do you not know who Dawn is? Because she seemed to know me.” Izuku questioned at first then added his observation sotto voce, searching her eyes for any memory of the event but she all but ignored him in favor of getting dressed, not caring if he saw her and supplied him with his own uniform quietly. She adjusted her bandages with eyes centered on his face, the gentleness of Izuku's voice made her feel as though she should remember something, but how she wound up in Izuku's arms and not on her blankets was unlike her as she enjoyed her spot on the floor.

Nothing he said rang a bell, she felt so lost as he kept the kind expression plastered on his face as he was letting her take her time to figure out all he was talking about and as much as she wanted to play it off as she knew what he was saying to her, her eyes gave away her confusion and fear. “No.” She fastened the buttons while leaving it in her usual messy fashion, tossing the loose tie on and having two buttons unfastened, the edges of her binding visible and all she gave Izuku was a smile. “I don’t know who Dawn is. We have class in like twen-.” Before Izuku had a chance to try and jog her memory, she froze in place with a minor, twitch and shake of her head cutting her sentence short but she looked at him as if nothing happened. “We have class in like twenty minutes.” Akira pointed out again with tired eyes grazing over Izuku's homely features, a particularly scrutinizing gaze stuck on his face which was filled with concern and shock. “D-Did you just have a seizure?” He stammered over her complete indifference to what she just did, giving him a slight shrug as if to say _‘it’s no big deal’_ and carried on with fixing her hair to her natural style. “That was a seizure, Akira!” He stationed himself at his desk with keys clacking louder than Katsuki's bruxism when he clamped his jaw down to grit his teeth together in anger.

He swirled his monitor around and slammed his finger into the screen to show a demonstration of what a seizure looked like then tensed up when Akira literally _barked_ at him, it was not a rush of words to make him drop the topic but rather a perfect recreation of how a dog voiced distress followed by her smirking at his startled frame. He had the urge to look around to see if there was an animal near him from how authentic the sound was and if he hadn’t seen her mouth move, he would have believed a dog needed attention or rather, in danger. “Myoclonic. It’s my brain’s way of hiccuping.” A simple answer as she passed by the silent stunned teen, taking her pronunciation and typed it out to find what she had meant, reflexively pressing his finger to his monitor’s screen to read the text like he would a book to find that she understood what she had happen to her and that it wasn’t something to worry about but it only helped slightly as he read on the causes of myoclonic seizures with wide eyes. _The most common triggers are lack of sleep and too much stress. Drinking alcohol, which can lead to too little sleep and fatigue, is the strongest trigger of myoclonic jerks and tonic-clonic seizures._ Izuku whipped his head back to view her but she was nowhere to be seen, having him scramble to get his uniform and tie on, following behind while jumping and tying his shoes colliding with the walls several times before running out the door seeing as she wasn’t in the apartment anymore.

When he caught up to her, she was standing at the stop light waiting for the light to change so she could cross the street, turning to Izuku while listening to him pant slightly with adrenaline and panic pumping through his blood. “How… How much _sleep_ have you had?!” He shouts from exhausted lungs, much of the emphasis centered on 'sleep' continuing his sentence before letting her speak, “Do you drink alcohol?” He had calmed down from his previous question but his latter accusation made her cross her arms coupled with an offended scowl. “No. And three hours.” That was her regular sleep pattern, if she tried to get any more than that, she would be stuck staring at the ceiling for hours until she could do something with the energy albeit it was not much but it was still enough to fuel her body for at least two days if she wasn’t able to secure a place to rest. “That’s not enough! Why didn’t you sleep over Kacchan’s? I’m sure he would have let you lay next to him or something, you can’t go without at least six hours of sleep Akira, that’s not healthy at all!” His concern did nothing but elicit a scoff from her, snatching him up to run across the street because with all his yelling and care, they almost missed their window to get to the other side. Izuku clung to her shirt in surprise, never able to grasp that she was capable of picking him up; a maiden being swept off her feet by her knight in shining armor akin to a damsel in distress is what he felt like in her arms.

_And he loved it._

Making him mentally stop, well freeze at the realization of the enjoyment of being carried as he has an entire inner turmoil and monologue trying to figure out why he liked it. The only conclusion he could come to was from his childhood years when his mother would carry him around when he was small or sick. The entire time during his revelation Akira had carried him almost completely to the U.A. building once she realized he had spaced out and that putting him down was a bad idea because he could potentially miss school and tarnish his perfect record of attendance in the beginning of the school year. Making him panic as both him and Akira saw the reporters surrounding the entrance and feared having his photo taken whilst being carried by Akira, having her set him down off near the side of the building. With words forming on her lips, just not enough for her to express all she was trying to say to him instead making her drop it altogether.

Izuku hurried to get to school, rambling to the reporters about whatever they had asked of him before running off, taking to interviewing the other students but Akira stayed behind, wary of all that they could ask her what all they knew from her past. She stationed herself far from the entrance, shoving her hands into her pockets while keeping her head low, a feeling that she couldn’t place bubbling up in her throat. “Do you know where the principal’s office is?” The voice was dark and raspy, holding a youthful stress that she attested to a student under a certain amount of pressure, without any hesitation she granted him with the directions to the principal’s office as she equated him to nothing more than a transfer student, no thought crossed her mind that this was someone she shouldn’t be talking to. Akira didn’t even look up at him, no view of his body or face as she recited from memory to help him out. She paid no mind to the sound of scratching coming from the individual as she did something similar when met with stress, thinking it was just a way of him relaxing.

“Got that?” Akira stared at the building as one of the reporter’s tried to get in and chuckled when the gate closed on them. “Thank you...” The man answered slowly, tired and dejected, watching her take off in a sprint before vaulting herself over the wall with a stream of flames to rush to class and passing by Aizawa on her way in. She could tell that today was going to be nothing but leisure as Vlad King didn’t comment much on her being a few minutes late, even without explanation as to why. Kendo glanced back at her accompanied by a kind smile and wave, welcoming her back to class with the softest greeting, “Good morning, Akira.” All she was given could be equated to a wave if Akira had cared to put in any effort then tucked her head in her arms on her desk, praising the silence she was given from the teen seated in behind her. She assumed he were dead due to his unusual behavior and tapped his shoulder to check on him, Monoma’s snide smile is all she wanted to see. “Morning! What happened to your anger from yesterday? Lost your fire, Akira?” Monoma mockingly questioned her, gaining a small smirk as she went back to her spot between her arms. As much as he annoyed her with his resentment of Class 1-A, when he was being snide and joking, she couldn’t help that it was her favorite aspect of his personality. “Mornin’.” She barely raised her voice to not disturb all of what Vlad announced, selection of the class representative, everyone’s hand flew up except Akira's.

She held no interest in leading a bunch of teenagers through lessons and workshops, making real friends in this class was nothing she wanted a part of. Akira kept her head down, sure that no one would even consider her a viable choice in the matter, too reserved and prone to anger as she was, most of the class feared her even when Monoma was putting on a brave face, she suspected deep down he was terrified. From her looks, to her voice and actions, none screamed a trustworthy person. Especially not to those who have not known her loyalty and received her minuscule amounts of kindness because to be honest, feigning an emotion was tiresome. To keep up with these upbeat and friendship bound students that’s what she would have to do, she hoped it would be as easy as it was with Izuku and Katsuki but her hopes were never high. She always expected failure in lieu of results, jaded that anyone’s accomplishments could benefit her in some way.

She scanned her classmates to gauge those she deemed worthy of the position when Kendo jumped up to set out slips of paper for people to vote for who they wanted class representative to be, what Akira expected was for everyone to basically vote for themselves, she knew this much of Monoma but the few that were selfless enough to cast another the position understood better than anyone they would never be fit as leaders. So many insecure teens, lacking the strength within themselves to bode a semblance of confidence in Akira, this was the weaker class she had been stuck in, trapped in was more alike her thought pattern. A bunch of babies parading around powers their mother’s and father’s gave them, too ignorant to accept that this was the time to step up and no longer suck their thumbs whilst getting read a bedtime story with a stuffed animal tucked under their arms because it helped ward off monsters.

Soon enough there would be real monsters for them to deal with, not just the ones they had to check under their beds for. Ones that do not have a care in the world to spare the weakest link or their lives, ones who will not hesitate to hurt, mame or even kill them as the monster sees fit. It was never a game of good guy and bad guy once a hero course was selected, it was a matter of being someone people can rely on, look up to and trust in. This class was more hopeless than a puppy born without legs, the only option she saw was euthanize and get another stronger candidate, choosing someone to lead when they were all still so innocent to the hardships of the world would be simple of these pea-brained teenagers but was it the right choice is all she craved to see.

Collecting the scrap pieces of paper from everyone with her hand outstretched, Akira glared down at her classmates. A look of degradation was blatant in turquoise eyes as she shuffled through the selection of her class, out of twenty students, except those who chose themselves, most were for Kendo and herself, even when she didn’t care to vote at all. “What the fuck?” She mumbled while organizing the votes from everyone in categories, Kendo had eight votes while Akira had four, everyone else had voted for themselves. Taking a gander at the votes laid out, Vlad announced that Kendo was to be class representative with Akira being her vice president.

After the decision was made, it left Akira dumbfounded that literally _anyone_ would vote for her, her wish to make a sudden outburst was smothered by the fact schoolwork needed to be done but she did have all of lunch to interrogate her classmates. Once everyone was seated, Vlad commenced with the lesson plan for the day, the air of joy and skepticism filled the room as Kendo settled into her new position as class president and Akira tried to understand all that was going on. Trudging through lessons as always up until the bell rang to signal lunch, having students hurry to get their meals most to avoid the fact that they weren’t academically adept.

Akira scanned over the cafeteria to find where her friends were before settling down near Monoma who rapidly patted the spot beside him, much to her annoyance. “Alright, who voted for me?” She set down her tray, choosing to not touch it until someone answered her, the first to speak up was Kendo. “I think that you have some good in you. Maybe people overlook that because of your appearance, so you earned my vote.” Kendo seemed to always see the good in people, earning a low groan from Akira with her finger pointed in her face. “Wrong.” Her answer was too sweet and naive, Akira despised that fact more than being her second in command. “My reasoning is the same as Kendo’s, you look scary but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a great leader or hero.” Juzo gave her his best smile, thinking that because she chose to go to the nurse’s office after he suggested it, she had the ability to listen to them and make friends. “Doubly wrong.” Akira looked over her other classmates to see Shihai relax in his chair before speaking up. “There is something dark about you, I wanted a leader that wasn’t typical, taboo even.” Akira went over to him and gave him a high five, something atypical of her. “You passed.” She returned to her seat next to Monoma who spoke to her after, confirming that he was the last vote. “You would make a fine leader, one to surpass Class-A!” Monoma chimed in with a smirk, only for it to be turned into a small frown from her answer. “Your flattery appeases me, peasant.” Akira collected her tray after gaining the information she wanted to join Izuku, Uraraka and Iida at their table as she held no interest in really talking to her own classmates.

Showing up in the middle of their conversation to overhear Iida explaining that he was a part of the Iida family bloodline, being the second son of a hero lineage and that his older brother is Ingenium, only making his wealth known to her. “Pretty cool, Iida. Sup, Izu and Ura.” Before Izuku got the chance to say something, a level three security breach alarm sounded off, alerting the students that someone broke in the school, causing more worry since a villain managed to get past the security gate. Everyone scrambled to get up to make a run for it, no sense of order or level headedness from hundreds, if not thousands of teens supplied with quirks, powerful ones at that.

Iida raised an eyebrow at Akira’s non-emergent attitude towards the drill, carrying on with her meal as if the protocol meant nothing to her or no sense of fear coursed through her veins. The next thought that ran through his mind was more unheroic and horrible than he meant, Iida suspected that Akira had something to do with the attack and that she was in the right spot. As everyone started to file out, Iida, Izuku and Uraraka followed suit, even with Izuku gently trying to get Akira to get out of her chair to no avail. For a split second before Izuku fully left the cafeteria, his eyes met Akira’s, he could have sworn that there was a rim of grey but he could have been mistaken from frazzled nervous and the conversation from earlier clouding his judgement or the fact that he was meant to lead Class 1-A without a semblance of leadership knowledge.

Most of the torrent in the hallways were a blur, students running as if their lives depended on it and so much more commotion and slight trampling stunningly came to a halt as IIda commanded the room from the top of the exit sign, earning the silence and cooperation of hundreds of teenagers. Once it all settled down, everyone made their way back to classes and those who were slightly injured took to Recovery Girl’s office to get checked out. Izuku stood before the class and brought up the point of Iida being a great candidate for class president because of how he handled the emergency with such level headedness and tact.

Returning to their desks comfortably to continue on with the lesson plan for the day, eyes turned toward the door as Vlad King entered to consult with Aizawa, quietly asking for some of his help with an issue. Aizawa waved his hand and told him all he knew on the topic but soon directed the inquiry towards his students to garner a better answer than the one he gave, in hopes that one of them knew more. “It seems that Vlad is missing a student. Does anyone know where Akira Takashi may be?” Aizawa’s exhaustedly watchful eyes scanned the classroom before Izuku jumped up in a sprint towards the cafeteria, second to Katsuki who was stunned by how fast Izuku’s movements were and as much as he hated falling behind the nerd, he joined him in stride without Aizawa even being able to tell them to explain what was going on.

Izuku knew his suspicions to be correct when he saw the discarded tray on the table and the pushed out chair as if someone made a run for it, no attempt to disguise that the plan was formed from a hastened mind. Gathering what he could from the scene there were two options; Akira had found a way to get herself out of the building during the entire debacle or that she was hidden somewhere within the walls of this building. Knowing her as well as he did, he guessed that she had hid, but all that was left was a simple question. “Where?” He stated aloud then turned to Katsuki who had been stomping around the tables to see if he could elicit a sound from under them and it made Izuku dive toward the ground to look for her.

“There! Kacchan, stop!” Izuku screamed which caused Katsuki to keep his leg suspended in the air as he cast his eyes downward with a scowl, shifting on his heel to set his foot down as he now understood why Izuku said something. As her hiding skills were as good as any, she had been trying to get out from under the table since she heard Izuku speaking and Katsuki almost stomped down on her head. _“Baku? Dori?”_ Dawn said, her voice was soft and brittle. Eyes glittering with tears while she crawled out like a stray kitten from a cardboard box, the nicknames earned nostalgic smiles from the two. “You’re in school, pipsqueak. You can’t go pulling shit like this, ya hear?” Katsuki warned her in a tight tone but it held no anger, helping her to her feet and sighed as she hugged him tightly, mumbling utter nonsense much like Izuku was doing now.

Somehow Izuku had managed to bring a notebook along with him and began scribbling down a few things while Katsuki took to relaxing Dawn, Lunch Rush had witnessed the entire thing and explained how he tried to get her to speak to him and stop crying and screaming at him from her panic. Katsuki thanked him and apologized on her behalf since he knew she would have trouble doing it herself, then when he saw that Izuku was just taking notes, he slammed his hand down on the table in anger. “What the fuck are you doin’ nerd?” Katsuki’s voice came out in a growl as he glared at the now stuttering teen, his hands flew up in mock defense. “T-The alarms went off a-and she came out! I saw that you had her Kacchan so I was just writing down the lesson before I forgot...” Izuku explained the best way he could so that he wouldn’t imply that he was taking notes about Akira’s and Dawn’s behaviors during certain situations, the notes from class were easy for him to remember.

The fact that Izuku panicked so quickly over this was a tell that he was lying but Katsuki could care less about it, whatever he was writing had to be similarly important to what was going on that he didn’t bother to tease or out him over this. Sighing in a sense of relief over the fact that she was calm in his arms, the light push against his chest followed by an annoyed scowl and scoff meant that Akira was back in control. “Get back to class, Aki. Making me have to come and get you, tryin’ to get out of lessons, huh?” Katsuki joked at how irritated she got, she flicked her thumb from the back of her upper front teeth toward him and swiveled around to unintentionally sashay back to class.

Katsuki followed her with Izuku a few paces behind them as he didn’t want to get in Katsuki’s way, since he always seemed to want to blow any item he had up and he really needed to keep these notes close and a secret. Izuku gave Akira a hug before she went back to class, waiting until he could enter Aizawa’s class to explain the best he could what had happened and that Akira was safe. Then went to apologize for how suddenly he left class and that he would never do it again, only to be met with Aizawa kneeling down to tell him that it was okay and that what he did was fine. Izuku nodded before returning to his desk, burying his head in his work to not get scolded by Aizawa for being distracted by everything his mind was coming up with.

Izuku chose to alternate between his personal notes and schoolwork as he didn’t want to fall behind but this new discovery was taking up too much space in his head for him to fully focus. After a while, he aced the skill of multitasking and the day flew by faster than he expected, before he knew it, he was packing up his backpack and taking to walking home with Iida and Ochaco. Talking about everything that went on because they never got to finish the conversation before due to the alarm blaring, Ochaco mentioned Izuku’s abrupt exit earlier. “What was going on with Akira? Did something bad happen?” Ochaco turned towards him but Izuku’s face was in his book, similarly not paying attention like the first time they met. Only this time, he didn’t trip over himself.

But he had heard her, yet he hadn’t an answer to her question, since he himself had no idea why Akira acted that way. “I-I’m sorry… I don’t know.” Izuku looked over at her and closed his notebook with an awkward smile, maybe it would be best if he asked Akira once he got home, curious to know her reasoning for hiding under the table like that. Ochaco and Iida both glanced towards each other as they would have assumed that Izuku would have had the answer to that, because he was so quick to go get Akira but chose not to continue the topic and instead talked about whatever came to mind until they had to break off to head to their respective homes.

Izuku nearly jumped out of his skin when he bumped into Akira, confused by how she got here faster than he did and truthfully how she was able to not be seen by anyone once school was over, she wasn’t with Katsuki because he saw him before going off with Ochaco and Iida. “Sup, Izu?” She saw how pale he went from her being in front of him, not bothered by him bumping into her and laughed at him trying to formulate a sentence. “H-How? You… We? Akira. I’m okay, how are you? After what went down today, I would have assumed that you didn’t completely want to talk to me about how I am and more focus on how you are. What was going on?” Izuku softly asked while gnawing on his inner cheek as nervous as he was of questioning her.

It wasn’t that he was scared of her, he just wasn’t sure how much he truly wanted to hear her answer to this. She had a tendency to have no filter, no matter who was around her or the situation at hand. Making crude comments about people straight to their faces without a care in the world, in fact, it was hilarious to her and as much as it made those near her uncomfortable, she never seemed to be able to recognize that on someone face. Especially right now with how Izuku was looking at her, her brain couldn’t register why he was making that face and just carried on with going upstairs. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Izu. I feel fine. Class was boring as hell, though I’m vice to Kendo which is baffling. I’m very ready to lay down. Why?” Akira shrugged off the feeling that she was forgetting something as she opened the apartment door, giving Izuku the right away to enter before following him inside.

Izuku grabbed her hand as he dragged her into his bedroom, confusion etched on her features when he sat her down on the mattress and crossed his arms. “You are gonna talk to me about all this. What happened today at lunch? You could have gotten into so much trouble if I didn’t come to get you, well, Dawn. She was crying and you were just so okay after Kacchan held her for a few minutes. C’mon, you really need help sometimes, you can’t keep handling all these things by yourself. Let me help you, Akira. Please, _please_.” If Izuku didn’t look so homely and adorable, she would be _shaking in her boots_ but all his scolding did was result in laughter from his best friend.

She tried to apologize for laughing at him but couldn’t form real words as he felt that her laughter was merely to mock his attempt at showing genuine concern and want to help her get through this. Izuku reacted before he even knew what he was doing and gripped her shoulders roughly with a mimicked growl that Katsuki would usually aim towards him. Akira quieted down while squinting at him, searching his face to make him realise that he was out of his mind doing something like that to her. Her next move was to chokeslam him against the bed, laying her hand ever so gently on the round cheeks as she straddled him while brushing her thumb over the freckles. “You’ve lost your goddamn mind, Izuku. Just because you have this new quirk doesn’t **ever** mean that you have the jurisdiction to treat me like that. Remember that it does not matter quirkless or with quirk. I am always superior to you. Do I make myself clear, baby bird?”

Izuku wished that he could just knock her off her high horse, make her see that there is no fault in weakness and that it was perfectly okay to confide in someone, especially someone who cared so deeply about her. It all led back to this, no wonder he built himself up on false hope and low self-esteem, this is what he surrounded himself with. Between Katsuki’s constant torment and Akira’s outlandish mood swings, he couldn’t keep up with how badly he wanted to not feel as though he was the weaker one in their friendship triangle and right about now, he was so close to just losing it, he had to separate himself from the situation as he pushed Akira off of him with no fight or pushback from her.

“Stop! Stop! Stop please! Stop it please! I can’t fucking take it anymore! You’re a bully, a complete bully who is afraid of letting people understand her because she cannot comprehend that the world does not revolve around her and that it does not fucking matter if she is vulnerable around the people that she loves.” Izuku stood while pacing around his room, the waterfall of words following afterwards and he couldn’t stop what he was about to say next. Too raw and full of emotion that it was impossible to hold it all back now. “And maybe that’s hard because she doesn’t know how to love and can’t love people but at least fake it! Fake like you care about me! Fake like you care about Kacchan! Fake like you give a shit about others! I’ve known you for a decade and the longer I’ve known you, the absolute worse you get!” At that he saw Akira’s eyes widen in disbelief, something dark flashed in her eyes, akin to betrayal but he chose to ignore it because she always ignored how he felt and it was his turn to let everything out.

“So please, if you’re going to hurt me, give me the chance to understand you’re doing it out of fear and not because you truly wish to lay violence down on the one person who will ever fully have your back.” He turned towards her to have her see that she was wearing him thin, looking into his eyes to see that he was not afraid of her, all of the emotions were there but fear was never one he felt when he looked at her. “The amount of times that I have defended your actions against others and vouched for your inappropriate reactions to situations that are delicate and sensitive are endless! Akira just talk to me! Fucking talk! Because all you do is listen and never allude to anything being wrong with you. I know you can’t see that something is wrong but I stare at you daily and see that you’re suffering. Let me in on your suffering, please. I beg of you. Let me in.” He held his head with unsteady hands as he blinked tears away, tugging on unruly green locks as he watched Akira get up. So sure that she would respond to him but she ran, ran out of the apartment before he had the chance to hug her or grab her to hold her and apologize to her.

Even with all that he said being true, he never wanted her to feel as though he didn’t want her around him or that she was a burden although how she behaved was taxing on his mental health, but she was not. If personality was all that made up a person then no one would ever find anyone to be friends with or lovers. The minutiae of idiosyncrasies within the human vessel is what attracts one to another, their soul is what helps dictate who they were. Akira had a pure soul whereas her mind was far from it, she contemplated snapping Izuku’s neck the longer he kept talking to her, but because she did have feelings for him, that she considered him her younger brother, she had to distance herself from him to not hurt him.

Izuku let out a choked sob as he fell to his knees with his body giving out under him, nails dug into his scalp as his mumbling turned into doubt and blame, running circles around his mind as if it were a track race. His body trembled as he curled up into a ball to find any form of comfort within himself but his mind plagued him with all that he could have said instead. Instead of getting mad at her, instead of yelling. Choosing the path of anger rather than compassion and understanding, but he could not get past how hurt he felt by her comments towards him. All of his pent up aggression that was directed at Katsuki simply translated to her, that he felt was stupid of him. She was the one that was always there for him, defended him against Katsuki mostly all the time, protected him when it came to others words and mockery.

How she mocked him was out of love but she was worn out today, as was he and they both should have waited to say something until they were sure that it was smart enough to speak to each other without this nuclear fallout between them. He had to trust that she would do the right thing and stay over Katsuki’s house and hope that it would get better soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the precursor to a timeskip, expect the Sports Festival in the chapter.


End file.
